Master

Now that Hubby-jr talks a whole lot more we’ve had some pretty interesting conversations. Here’s one of them.

“Am I your master?” Hubby-jr asked.

“No! Jesus is my master.” I answered frowning. What gall?! As I wondered how my son came to harbour such notions of grandeur. Huff.

“Jesus is my master too,” said my son and I warmed up with a smile but was still a little puzzled.

He proceeded to ask, “am I Master Tan?” (His surname is Tan)

Aaahhhh… a big grin formed across my face as the light bulb switched on in my head. His current favourite DVD movie then (a few weeks ago) was Kungfu Panda. And in that show there is the character, Master Shifu who is Kungfu Panda’s master.

“Yes, you are Master Tan.” It is the culture here to address little boys, Master and little girls, Miss.

I continued to elaborate, “you are Master Tan just like daddy is Mister Tan but that doesn’t make you my master. That is a different meaning of master…”

But I couldn’t help but wonder if he knew he had stumbled upon the truth, that he and his little sister are my “masters”. The ones I serve and labour for. Everyday.

Conversations with Little Missy

The first week my kids started school

Me: Can mommy go to work?

(It was one of “those” mornings where I just wanted to “run away” to formal employment.)

LM: No, cannot. Not now. Mommy must grow bigger and bigger first, then mommy can follow daddy to work. Not now. Next time, ok?

(I’ve often told her she can’t do certain things until she’s grown up, i.e. after she’s grown bigger and bigger. I usually repeat “bigger” with added emphasis just so she gets that it’ll be sometime before she gets to use makeup or drink coffee.)

Two days ago in a (get this) cubicle in a loo in a shopping centre! 

LM: Mommy is so..o tall.

Me: I’m tall?! (Hey, I don’t get to hear this much if any at all)

LM: Yes, mommy is so tall now. You can work now.

Me: I’m tall enough to work now?

LM: Yes.

A New Year, A New Era

In December last year…

I packed away Little Missy’s playpen, the one she has slept in since she was born. The same one Hubby-jr slept in. Little Missy now has her own bed. Unlike my firstborn, she was so thrilled to finally have her own bed, just like kor-kor (big brother in Cantonese).

I packed away a sturdy stroller/pram. The wheels are so worn out, they have “smoothened” out. The stroller has well served its life. Both my kids used it from the day they were born. We had endless walks, shopping trips, visits to the  playground, visits to playdates with it. Now my kids walk with me. I still have a lightweight stroller for longer outings such as going to the zoo. But we’d probably give that away in a year’s time.

I packed away lots of baby toys too.

Way before December, I packed away milk bottles, baby monitor and gave away lots of baby clothes, shoes and stuff.

Babydom is over. Finito. Sigh.

At the turn of the year, my dear Little Missy started playgroup. Her first tiny step into the world of “formal” education. 

A new era is here.

AND as if I needed this fact to be hammered into my thick skull, my firstborn, Hubby-jr, dropped his first milk tooth a day after New Year’s! He is only 5 and half! He did not fall or got hit, his bottom front tooth just loosened and fell. For some strange reason, he was absolutely thrilled!

I on the other hand was far from thrilled. This my friends, to me marks the coming of the end of his preschool years. Next year, sniff, my once upon a time baby son is entering primary (junior) school. Yikes. But I still have one more year to get there… ONE whole year. I’ll cross that bridge then. And ONLY then.

Mothers Dealing With Discouragement

Sometimes I get so discouraged with the way the kids are acting or the way the house looks. I feel like I’m doing the best I can, but it’s not good enough. My husband tries to help, but I just feel worse. What can I do?… Click here to read more (if the link doesn’t bring you to the article, go here to download a copy I saved as a word document). 

Its an article I found over at FamilyLife.com

P/S: It has great tips for husbands too.

What have I been doing?

Oh dear, I just realised that I have not posted anything for the last 3 weeks. Pardon moi. My parents were down for two and half weeks (they left 2 days ago, sniff) and I was busy doing stuff I couldn’t do on my own. Stuff like…

• Watching a Hong Kong cantonese drama (not recommended, highly addictive).
• Reading. I discovered Nevada Barr books and I love them. An investigative series of a park ranger named Anna Pigeon.
• Some house cleaning, i.e. throwing lots of accumulated junk.
• Spending a day or two downtown and having lunch date with hubby.
• Spending time with my parents. AND
• Napping or just plain vegetating.

It was BLISSFUL. Did I mention I LOVE my parents and I LOVE it when they visit? *innocent smile and blink-blink*

Well I’m back blogging but probably just once a week cause I’d still like to do some of the stuff above, albeit to a lesser degree. Nonetheless I hope you’ll continue to drop by.

It Was Not Just A Dance

“Backward, Forward, Shuffle, Shuffle… get ready for Chinese Dance… next is Malay Dance… now the Indian Dance…”

My son showed me a dance routine he learnt in school the week leading to Singapore’s National Day (9 August). I was so amused and thrilled that he not only learnt it but he could actually perform it.

They were going to perform this mass dance on 8 Aug 08 as part of his kindergarten’s National Day Celebration.

So the day before, I checked with his class teacher if I could witness the celebration (there was no open invitation to parents). After getting her green light, I snuck to school that eventful morning after I sent him off to his school bus, Little Missy in tow.

I wanted to surprise him. (He has asked me on several occasions to pick him up from school.)

Upon arriving at his kindy I stationed ourselves right in front of a small group of parents at the place where they’d perform the mass dance. He beamed when he saw us. I was half afraid he would cry and want to stand with me (as he would have done so last year). But he didn’t. He just smiled and kept glancing our way every now and then.

I was so proud. My boy is maturing so well.

Then the dance began. And even though I could only see his head (thankfully he’s tall) bobbling in a mini sea of red and white (all the children were dressed in the national colours), I felt a lump in my throat. I had to hold back my tears.

I swear if you could see through me that moment, you’d see an explosion of sorts. I was exploding with pride. Drama huh? Well it is partly because he was just SO different last year. Last year he would’ve just stood still and not participate. So for me to see him taking part fully in something like this was just…

Never in a million years would I have expected myself to feel that way over a mass dance performed by a group of pre-schoolers (of course I only had eyes for my five year old).

But I did. I am mommy-fied.

How To Amuse Toddlers

Just as I wrote about engaging my two year old Little Missy, I came across this – How To Amuse Toddlers at Instructables.

This guy has wonderfully compiled a list complete with pictures and some instructions. I’ve done most of the activities with my kids and can vouch that they DO amuse toddlers. Having said that I still found the list very handy. So if you have to entertain little ones, go check it out.

Helping With The Dishes

Since the turn of the year, Little Missy dropped her late morning nap. This means that I have an active toddler for the whole morning! It has its fun side, she’s my little companion (shadow?), accompanying me while I grocery shop, run errands and even go on fun downtown trips (after Hubby-jr goes to school). When we’re not out, we enjoy slow mornings at home.

I’m cherishing these precious bonding moments with her as next year she’ll be attending playgroup sessions for 1½ hours in the mornings. (Sniff, my baby is growing up.)

The flipside is that she can sometimes (more than sometimes?) demand more attention than I can spare. It can be pretty annoying, not to mention a test of my patience especially when I’m trying to get the house chores done. She’ll keep yelling, “Mommy, come. MOMMY! COME! COME!!! MOMMY!!!” Yes, 2-year olds can be very persistent and often suffer temporary memory loss of the terms, No or Wait. “Later” to them means, a second later!

So I was so glad to stumble upon this “trick”. She now “helps” me wash dishes after lunch almost everyday. She’s happy just playing with water, soap water. Occasionally she “washes” a cup or bowl (plastic or melamine ones). Ya, well it is more of over-washing them in soap water…

It is brilliant. She’s happy and I hope she eventually does help me with real washing (one can hope right?). I get the dishes done and best of all, we have our bonding time over the sink!

Yes, this is how I do it. A dining chair, a sponge brush, a plastic bowl and some soap water (I usually give her more, she’s almost done in this picture). And oh yes, she usually needs a change of clothes after this. Next I’m getting her an apron!

H2O = Happy Kids

My kids LOVED their stay at my parents’ house. Just a backyard, some plants, a small water pool and lots (LOTS!) of water made them very, VERY happy. (I too was VERY happy. Happy, self-occupied kids, what more could a mother ask for?!)

Well, this is what they did almost every morning (and sometimes evenings too).

 Watering poh-poh (grandma)’s plants.

 Playing in this small water pool.

Incredibly they didn’t seem to get tired of this tiny pool. In fact they couldn’t get enough of it!

NO, this wasn’t ALL they (we) did during our 10-day stay. There were other stuff too. But that’ll be in another post. I’m still catching up on our laundry!

P/S: Yes, dearest, DEAREST hubby had our computer resurrected! God bless him. Did I mention how much I love that man?

Sometimes small and simple is good enough

1 Thomas & Friends Cake

2 Large Oishi Pizzas (and 12 yum-delicious chicken wings)

2 Close Friends (who’ve known each other since 4 months old) and their little siblings (that totals 5 children guests)

2 Mommy’s “motherhood” friends

That was what I whipped up in two days for my son, Hubby-jr, to celebrate his birthday. And that was all it took to make him a very happy boy.

My son is turning five tomorrow.

I was mulling for sometime in May as to what I should do for his birthday. Organising a birthday party on a weekend was one of the ideas I had. BUT when the holidays started (almost 2 weeks ago) I ditched the idea. You see, I was just plain too exhausted. It’s my first time winging a holiday with 2 kids without my parents (yup, they usually visit during the school hols). We (hubby and I) then decided to just bring him for a movie on his special day.

B-ut… then… just two days ago my friend asked if we’d be celebrating Hubby-jr’s birthday and that led me to ask my son what he wanted to do for his birthday. Would he prefer his friends coming over or going out to watch a movie? Without hesitation and with much excitement he chose the former. So I called his two “babyhood” friends’ mothers that evening. Next day I brought him to choose his cake. This morning I called for pizzas. And that was that, we had a mini birthday celebration.

It was great seeing him brimming with excitement in anticipation of his friends coming over for his birthday the last two days. To think he was once afraid of parties. He has really grown.

“Thank you mommy for preparing for my friends to come” he said after I spent some time in the morning getting the house and things in order.

“I really enjoyed my birthday (party) today,” smiling as he told his daddy over dinner.

And that was all it took for this mommy-fied woman to think and feel – it is all worth it. Being mommy-fied isn’t so bad after all.