I'm a snob!

I'm a snob.... or at least I appear to be some of the time because I'm quiet.

I remember when I was younger, second sister's friends told her. "We like your eldest sister better. Your youngest sister is a bit "aksi". (short for action as in snobbish).

And sometimes, Mr MG would tell me.. "Try to make an effort to talk to my friends a bit more, otherwise they may think you don't like them."

Ugh! Thats the problem I sometimes face for being quiet. I'm mistaken for a snob! Because of my silence, I'm easily seen as indifferent and sometimes cold, this even when I try to smile. I guess people don't notice the smile as most people are drawn to people with a gift of the gab ie those that can really talk about anything and everything and draw the attention of everyone in the room.

Being sociable and chatty doesn't come all that naturally to me unless its with people I know really well. I guess growing up the youngest with a big age gap between me and the rest does not help especially when no one listens to you and you've been told again and again to shut up when big people are speaking. Well, I quickly learned to be rather taciturn. (Lesson here: Always listen to your children.)

I'm a lot more chatty and talkative on my blog. At last.... after all these years... I've found my voice! Isn't that great? On my blog, I can let my hair down and be who I truly am, and to be a little bit gila-gila sometimes too. I love to reach out to others, to help in some small way, and my blog allows me to do that much more than in real life.

So, on my blog, I guess, I'm a bit different from my actual self. In real life, I prefer to listen rather than talk. I function a lot better one-to-one than in a group. I'm a homebody rather than a party animal. I wonder about my fellow bloggers, the ones who drop by here frequently. Are you the same in real life as you portray on your blogs? What are you really like? Care to tell me?

The Blogging Magnetism

There's this strange pull, this attraction, this addiction called blogging. The more I blog, the more I feel like blogging. If I allowed myself to, I could/would probably write more than one post a day. And so I have this self-imposed limit of "a blog a day" (makes the stress go away) and "no blogging during weekends" otherwise....... Mr MG is gonna clobber me!

Blogging is consumming me up! And so......

• I'm not going to blog
• I'm not going to think of what to blog
• I'm not going to read blogs
• I'm not going to blog hop
• I'm not going to leave a comment
• I'm not going to reply to comments
• I'm not going to check my stats
• I'm not going to look at my referral list
• I'm not going to refresh my blog

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................. in the next........... 5 minutes. Okie! Done! I've gotten it out of my chest. (ie. the guilt of blogging when I really should be doing other things.) See y'all tomorrow!

Sleep Like A Baby

"Don't walk, rock, carry or nurse baby to sleep. You'll spoil them and they won't know how to sleep on their own." - so says many baby "experts", the old folks and some not so old folks."

Well, I don't believe in that.... but since its been said over and over again by so many, sometimes I can't help but to doubt myself or worry just a little, sometimes.

My children are walked, rocked, carried and nursed to sleep. Why? Because its the most natural thing in the world to me to pick them up when they cry, to cuddle and comfort them and to aid them in falling asleep since they look like they're having a tough time falling asleep. If I let them cry, they will just cry until they fall asleep from exhaustion. Thats silly!

My Girl was walked, carried and swayed a lot by both me and hubby when she was a baby. And now, she falls alseep on her own, no problems whatsoever. I can leave her in the room and tell her I will be back afterwards and when I return sometimes she's asleep, sometimes she's reading or playing quietly. Great!

My Boy is nursed to sleep and with this one, I worry that he may not know how to fall asleep on his own. However the past three nights, he has been doing just that. Normally he would fall asleep in my arms but on Sunday night he became quite awake after a feed. He became so awake (or so I thought mistakenly) I took him out to watch tv with daddy and he seemed quite happy with that! On Monday, he was wide awake again instead of falling asleep after a feed. I let him play with his sister for a while then separated them and he looked so active sitting up and rolling about, smiling, till he fell asleep somewhere near the top of my head!

Then last night he did it again. After a feed, he became or rather looked wide awake. He stood up, smiled, was very playful, then he dragged his pillow near me and placed himself on the pillow so that he was looking down at me. Then he poked his fingers into my eyes and said "eyes" smiling all the time. When I smiled back at him, he laughed delighted. He poked my eyes and nostrils and played with my face till he fell asleep. Haha. I hope he keeps this up. It will help in his weaning.

MG just got inspiration to write poetry to add to her collection. Hehe. (My poems are often inspired by the people I love.) So here it is.

Oh Mommy, won't you carry me
I can't sleep mommy can't you see
I'm afraid you will just let me be
Instead of holding me on your knee

Once, in your womb I'm warmly snuggled
Now the world is big and cold I'm so puzzled
I long to be pressed closed to your heart
So I will know that we will never part

Mommy won't you hold me near
I promise I won't shed a tear
I love to feel your rocking motion
And I'm sorry I made that commotion

Soon I will grow big and strong
And you will know you did no wrong
When you held me rocked me and loved me
For this is the way its meant to be

Related links:

Sleep, baby sleep

Rock-A-Bye-Baby

Note: While searching for my previous posts on this subject, I was amused to discover that

1) I have such strong views about this subject and

2) baby still hasn't learned to fall asleep on his own since then (Hahaha. Now surely advocates of the "let baby cry to sleep" or "my confinement lady taught my baby to sleep through the night in one month!" methods will surely laugh at me and say that I'm a loony woman and if I complain about sleepness nights, they'll say its all my fault..... but who cares!)

Babysitter cum teacher

Who say videos are bad for kids? It gives them hours of fun, they love it and they can learn from it......... and it frees the parents ..... for a while. Hahaha. So says a guilty mother who sometimes uses the video as a babysitter :P

MG: Mummy going to shi shi (toilet). You play here.
My Girl: Ok. I'm going to play with all this wonderful toys.
My Girl: Mummy, what is wonderful?
MG: Wonderful means very nice, very good, great.
My Girl: Mummy, the octopus sing and then say, its a wonderful, wonderful song. And then the octopus sing....... ah... ah.... I can't remember the song. Wait..... I think. Mummy, can you remember?
MG: No, mummy cannot remember. We'll watch the show a few more times, then we can sing together ok?

My girl is often like that. She'd use a new word she learns without fully understanding the meaning and then ask what it is in her next breath. I notice she does learn quite a few things and new words from the show she watches and its wonderful that she tries to apply what she learns on her own initiative. I think I shall run out and buy more videos so I can have more free time! that she learns more new words. Hehe. I usually designate two showtimes a day, one just before naptime in the afternoon and the other just before bedtime at night.

Meantime, baby is learning new words too. Last night he said "Awo" (Hello) :)

Oh those inconsiderate people

At bedtime...

Boom boom boom boom

My Girl: Mummy, whats that sound?
MG: Oh its the sound of music coming from people's house. Maybe they're watching some show loudly.
My Girl: How come like that one?! Other children in other people's house want to sleep. Me and baby and daddy and mummy also want to sleep. 11.00 o'clock already! So late! So bad the people. Not like daddy, watch show softly. (Then she shakes her head and lets out a big sigh! Looking very annoyed.) Note: Her daddy watches the video most nights when she's about to go to sleep but he puts it real soft so as not to disturb her.

By this time I'm struggling hard not to laugh aloud and played along with her....

MG: Ya lar. Those people so bad. Never think about other people, only think about themselves.
My Girl: Haiyah!
My Girl: Mummy, why I haiyah?
MG: Hahahaha

It may be a funny conversation but she has a point there. People living in condos should be more considerate and not watch their home movie theatres so loudly with the music and sounds booming and pounding with sensesurround creeping into other people's homes at night! Haiyah!

Baby's favourite words

Baby has increased his vocabulary further. At 23 months, his favourite words are.......

• Dddy (daddy) - now I'm not sure why he loves to go around calling "Dddy, Dddy" but when his daddy holds out his arms to scoop him up, he runs away shaking his head vigorously. Also he refuses to call "mummy" even though he can. Naughty baby indeed!
• skud (scared) - he loves to run to me thumping his chest in fear when he hears a loud sound. This one courtesy of his sister whom he loves to copy. So everytime there is a loud sound, I would hear two little pairs of pitter patter feet running towards me.
• stuck - whenever his toys or he himself is stuck somewhere, which is often.
• no more! - at the end of any show when the credits roll or when he finishes a drink or food
• go go (mango) - when I serve him mango
• oh oh! - when he drops something, sometimes on purpose.
• nana (banana) - when I serve him bananas or when he sees some hanging in the kitchen and want some.
• kai kai - when he wants to go out, he'd run to the shoe cabinet to get his shoes. (Don't all children just love to "kai kai".)
• thow! (throw) - when he and his sister are playing their favourite game ie. throwing anything and everything around the house.
• elmo! - when he sees the little elmo that used to be a cake topping decoration. Not sure why, but he loves the little hello kitty, elmo and cookie monster cake topping decorations. Maybe cos' its easy to hold in his little hand.
• yea! (cheering) - he would cheer and clap his hands when he thinks he's done something smart! Then of course he'd be delighted if we cheer and clap along or praise him.
• cup - goes to the kitchen and point to his cup on the kitchen counter then points to the cupboard where I keep the ribena bottle.

Meantime, his sister continues to make us laugh with her words.

My Girl: Daddy, baby's toy no more battery. Please put battery!

Mr MG: Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Ok? Daddy busy doing work.

The next day.....

My Girl: Daddy, put battery for baby's toy. Its tomorrow already. (Haha. She definitely can understand the concept of time now)

And here's another one....

My Girl: Daddy, go and play with your computer.

Mr MG: Why?

My Girl: Don't disturb mummy. Mummy is busy doing work. (Mummy was busy cleaning the aircon which was leaking. Hmm....lucky Mr MG. Why don't she tell mummy to go and play with the computer instead huh?)

My Girl: And don't ask so many why, why, why! (Hahaha. She must have learned this from us!)

Do Everything Together or Separate?

Having two kids with quite a close age gap is a juggling act. I struggle with the decision whether to feed them together or separately... and whether to put them to nap/bed at the same time or one after the other.

In the end, this is what I do....

With sleeping, I find it a lot easier to let them sleep at the same time. So usually, I breastfeed baby while chit chatting or reading stories to My Girl till they both fall asleep. Now, thats not too difficult to do although it was not easy to establish that routine and I had many a sleepless night/day when one of them would wake the other up just as the other was falling asleep and I would have to wait for both of them to get sleepy all over again. It can be quite frustrating! Now, we have established quite a nice routine so its worth the hard work of having a single bedtime for both. I'd say it was worth it to establish the routine. Now, for afternoon naps, sometimes after baby falls asleep, my girl would sit quietly on her side of the bed reading or playing softly by herself and I can even leave them on their own for a while. And they both love and look forward to their bedtime. They love to run to daddy to give him his goodnight kiss, then its off to bed to read and tell stories and rhymes or sing before lights off and they are good. They seldom complain when its time to switch off the lights. :)

As for feeding times, I haven't quite got the groove yet. I used to feed both of them and myself at the same time thinking that would save me time but sometimes the distraction is too much for them, I think. In the end, I find it went a lot faster for me to feed baby first, then followed by my girl. I feed them one at a time or both together depending on the situation and my mood. As for myself, well, I usually eat whenever I can find the time in between, like in between spoonsful of feeding them or while doing the dishes or cleaning up. I literally eat on the go or while standing and moving around. Sitting down to eat is a luxury for me. Hehe.

Where bathing is concerned, its usually one after the other although they sometimes like to bathe together so they can pour water on each other with their toy cups and laugh like its the funniest game ever. Oh well, sometimes they play together like the best of friends and sometimes they fight and cry like all siblings do.

Almost Cheated

On Sunday, we had dinner at a foodcourt. I ordered my food at a stall and when it was time to pay, I gave the lady a RM50 note for the RM5.00 meal since I didn't have any small change with me. I was looking around thinking about what other food to order for the kids and hubby with a thousand other things running through my mind and must have looked that way ie dreamy and far away and thus received only RM5.00 in change.

She must have been disappointed that I had the presence of mind to tell her that I gave her a RM50 note and immediately gave me the balance RM40. From the look on her face, I knew that she was trying to cheat me of my RM40. Its a very common trick, this one ie giving a lesser change. Sigh! We have to be alert all the time.... even just for buying dinner... sometimes, its a little bit tiring.

Seems like there are so many unscrupulous people around trying to cheat us if they can. When handling money, need to be alert. When handling credit cards, need to be equally alert for any fraudulent practises. And need to be alert at the ATM etc etc. Its sooooo tiring.

Our First Craft

I read that pre-schoolers love to do crafts and so with that in mind, and with the worry that my little girl is not getting enough stimulation and learning from just being at home with mummy, I went out and bought her a drawing pad, paints and a pallette. Its cheaper than getting a toy. Costing just less than RM5 it will give her hours of fun. I almost couldn't recognise the watercolours. They look so different. Back when I used it during school days, it was in little aluminium tiubs with coloured paper wrappers to indicate the colours. Now they're all in plastic tubes. Times have changed. I'm getting old!

My girl was sooooo excited. (Cos she has seen Barney painting and have been bugging me to let her paint too! Haiyh!) And so I did! At last! But first, I had to convince myself not to be lazy to set up and clean up after our activity. And bad mommy used it as a leverage to her full advantage! "If you are naughty, no painting afterwards!" :PpPpP

First I told her to draw a house (she has just recently learned to draw pictures that have more meaning than mere scribbles) so we could paint it afterwards. I didn't help her with it very much, merely made some suggestions like "Why don't you paint the ground another colour instead of blue? What colour would you like the ground to be?" She said "green, because the grass is green."

While we were painting, baby sat on his high chair and scribbled on his drawing paper with crayons and colour pencils so he was happy too. Bad mommy didn't let him join in the painting fun because too lazy to wash him up afterwards. (Not like this mommy who is rewarded with a happy face.) So he had his own fun scribbling to his heart's content as there was no one to snatch his crayons from him. He had it all to himself! Hehe.

And.....here is the end result! TAAADAA!

And this one's by baby sribbling with his crayons.

My Little Guardian Angel

"Mummy, be careful the steps."

"Mummy, be careful ....... don't fall down."

"Mummy, be careful, got hole."

"Mummy, be careful, got water."

"Mummy, be careful, here dark, dark."

My little guardian angel's services extend to Mr MG as well.....

"Daddy, be careful your head."

"Daddy, be careful the fan."

My Girl is always watching out for us the way we try to watch out for her. They say little ones learn from observing and mimicking. Now, I wonder what other good behaviours I should practise to let her mimic. Hehe.

Recently, little guardian angel made us laugh with more funny things she says. Eg.

On the way to dinner.....
My Girl: I'm hungry.
Mr MG: Yah! Don't want to drink your milk before you go to sleep some more lah. Now you're hungry.
My Girl: I'm hungry... NOT THIRSTY!

While reading nursery rhymes...
My Girl: Mummy, why does the cow look so happy when the little boy blue is not looking after it?
MG: -------- (Hehehe. She looked genuinely puzzled because to her "looking after" means to take care of something well, since I'm always telling her to "look after" her toys well and her dadddy is always telling her to "look after" baby and mummy when he goes off to work. When her daddy tells her to "look after" mummy she would be very happy and follow me all around the house hugging me and saying "Mummy, I take care of you!" So to her the cow should be sad when its not being "looked after" in the nursery ryhme which goes "Where is the boy who looks after the sheep, he's under the haystack fast asleep.")

Wherever we go......

When you have two young kids and no maid and no other adults at home.... it means taking the kiddoes with us wherever we go. And so, during the weekend when I had to go to the dentist, the whole family went along with me. Then hubby and I wanted to have a haircut and so we dragged the kids along with us again. When we were sick, we visited the doctor four times for four of us, each time, the whole family went along to accompany the sick one.

When we do banking, the whole family goes along too. Even to the neighbourhood store, the whole family goes together. Hahaha. Poor babies... they have to spend quite a lot of time in waiting rooms waiting for us or for each other. Luckily they're good entertainers and can easily entertain themselves. In fact, I think they rather enjoy the "adventure" of following us everywhere.... or at least, I hope!

On a sidenote, I had to go to the dentist to fix a broken tooth. Yes, the teeth actually broke off! The dentist said it was a goner, and the tooth simply collapse. She said she could see another like it due for the same fate! Boo Hoo Hoo! Its just a shell left behind and so she had to do root filling for me. Ouch! That left another big dent in our pockets. Ouch again! Is it any wonder, I only visit the dentist to fix something instead of for prevention and care? Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!

Heaty or Cooling?

I remember once when I had a cough, a doctor I went to see spoke to me in terms of cooling and heaty and told me to avoid "leong cha" (cooling tea) and fruits. Another doctor told me there is no such thing as heaty or cooling and that I should continue to take my fruits as usual. And then the old ppl told me to avoid fruits when I am sick. Errrr... so which is it?

I have very poor knowledge when it comes to such things. I believe the best kinds of knowledge or recipes are the hand-me-down kind ie passed from generation to generation from mothers to daughters or whatever. My own mother died when I was 10 so there goes my hand-me-down knowledge and recipes. Although I vaguely remember her telling us that there are two types of colds ie the cooling type of the heaty type and if one had the cooling type than one should avoid cooling foods and vice versa.

Oh dearie me. How utterly confusing! So should I be taking fruits or not and if so what kind? Or are fruits too acidic for the stomach when taking meds? Haiyah! Should I be boiling some herbal teas for my family and if so what kind or would I be making things worse if I did? So confusing!

Since most of the time, I have to learn most things on my own, with no elderly folks to "teach" me, (the internet is my teacher but thats confusing too because theres too much information out there!). I digress, as I was saying since I have no knowledge I subscribe by the rule of "Avoid if not sure" and "Take everything in moderation." I guess thats the most sensible and prudent thing to do after all. Anyone care to enlighten this blur momma? Maybe I shouldn' t ask or I might end up even more confused? What do you think?

The Circle Is Complete

Mr MG is sick too so now the circle is complete and here we go again on the not so merry go round. Cost of medication for the whole family?

• Baby RM62
• My Girl RM101
• MG RM40
• Mr MG RM40

Almost RM250 poorer just for a simple flu virus. Chey! If got no money how to be sick? For average ppl like us, thats a big hole in the pocket. Speaking of which.... dad's medication costs a whopping RM500 a month. Thats almost as much as his pension money! Even shared out among his children, its still a heavy financial burden.

Hmm.... grumble, grumble, grumble. As you can see, MG is not back to her usual cheerful self yet. Sometimes I feel even more sick after taking the antibiotics and would avoid it unless I'm feeling really sick which I am. Last night felt the chills again. At least the chills are gone now. Gone enough for me to cook and feed the kids and hopefully, they would eat today.....

I wish......

1. I wish to lie back and have my scalp and neck gently massaged with sweet smelling shampoo and warm water to rinse it off.
2. I wish to have my lower back massaged in a cool room with music softly playing till I drift off to dreamland.
3. I wish to wake up to find hot home cooked porridge or clear noodle soup waiting for me on the table and for someone to clear up after I'm finished with my meal

Ok MG wake up! WAKE UP! You can stop dreaming now!

I HATE TO BE SICK!

My throat feels sore and like something is stuck inside. My nose is blocked and congested. My lower back hurts and I feel a little bit feverish.

Hmm... enough of negativity. Lets post something positive instead.

Last night, in the middle of the night, baby woke up and sat up suddenly. I pretended to be asleep instead of going to him immediately. He sat up unsteadily with his eyes closed. He looked like he was about to tumble forwards or backwards anytime. After a while, he crawled over to me and lay his head on my shoulder. (I was sleeping on my side). But that was not good enough for him. He crawled higher and put his cheek on my cheek. Hehe. So sweet. Then he sat up again, his eyes wide opened and he tugged at my sleeve. I opened my eyes to look at him and he pointed to his breastfeeding pillow. Ahh.... my weaning efforts stalled for the time being from his feeling sick.

My girl woke up whispering a few times to herself. She was running a high fever. One time she woke up and said "Mummy, I scared. I cannot see anything. Everything blur blur." I reassured her that everything looked blur because her nose was runny and thats why she had tears in her eyes which made "everything blur blur." Another time she suddenly woke up and said "Mummy.... happy." Poor little thing. Her fever was very high yesterday and she looked so tired. These are the things that keep me going.

Like mama22beas said in her comments to me:

"But funny, I'd be calmer when kids are sick, tougher too...I rarely get cranky even less sleep. maybe because I kesian them a lot! "

How true. I think we're all a bit that way. The kids will get very cranky and fretty but your patience with them doubles up. How can you not get anything but tougher and stronger in order to provide them with the comfort, love and attention when they need it the most? Ok. Go MG Go!

Confessions of an Imperfect Mum

Long, venting post. Skip if you have better things to do.

I'm having a bad mum week. With my kids, I'm like Mdm Mum and Mrs Monster (Jekkyl & Hyde). One moment, I'm the loving, gentle mum, next I turn into a monstor. Simply terrifying. This week Mrs Monster reared its ugly head several times. (*hangs head in shame*)

Monday morning.......

"Smack!" my palm met a small cheek right after I tried to angrily shove (using more force than was necessary) a small morsel of food into a reluctant half opened mouth. Parenting Gurus' words "Don't turn mealtime into battletimes" echoed ignored somewhere in the recess of my mind. I felt like the maid who was abusing the kids while her employers are away. Seriously I can actually emphatize with any maid who does that. (Thats why no maid is watching my kids) Anyone who has to deal with not just one, but two picky eaters 3X a day, everyday, would turn into a monster too!

Baby was banished from the highchair soon afterwards while I fed his sister instead thinking I would try again later. I tried but he still shook his head vigorously and spit out everything I gave him. Sigh!

Monday afternoon.....

I found out that baby was having a fever. Ah! That explains the poor appetite. Poor baby! Bad mommy. Guilty mommy!

Monday night....

Baby was running a high fever and could not sleep most of the night. As if to pay pennance for being a bad mum earlier on, I had to hold him throughout the night so that he would at least get some rest.

Tuesday morning....

We decided to see if his fever would run its course without antibiotics. (As we usually do, by waiting one or two days to see if they recover on their own before we rush to the doc.) It did not. Baby was feverish and fretful all day long.

Tuesday evening....

Hubby rushed home to take us all to the paeditrician. The paed said he had very high fever, gave him a suppository (If you don't know what that is, its a capsule shoved in between his little butt cheeks to make the fever come down faster). He also got stripped and sponged by the nurse making him bawl very loudly indeed. Poor baby!

Tuesday night......

By the time we got home it was late. Had to feed everyone dinner and had loads to clean up afterwards. During dinner, my girl spilled soup all over the tablecloth and instead of saying "Its ok, its an accident". monster mum went into nagging mode.

While I was doing the dishes, my girl decided to throw a tantrum when I told her it was late and I was not free to play with them in the playpen as I usually do most evenings. (I know that if I had handled her differently ie explaining to her properly instead of brushing her off and ignoring her afterwards, the tantrum would not have happened. Sigh!) While, she got a spanking by daddy, I rushed to have a much longed for shower which I didn't have time for all day from looking after baby.

After the shower, I felt much more relaxed and sleepy so I began the nighttime routine for the kids. An hour later, baby was asleep and so was hubby who was simply too tired. I came out of the room to check the doors etc and when I went back in, I was greeted by a little voice saying "Mummy, I vomit." Aaarrrgghhh! I was so looking forward to sleeping at last, when I saw the mess my girl had made, I wanted to cry. I really did. She had vomitted all over the bedside table (it was a two tier one and both tiers were filled with vomit) as well as the mattresses I have stuffed at the side of the bed to fill in the gap (so that no one would fall off), on the floor, a bit of the bedsheet and skirting etc.

Monster mum swung into action. No comforting for my girl. Only nagging, scolding, lecturing etc etc. as I cleaned up the mess. Right after I cleaned up the mess, I was pondering whether to have a cup of warm drink when..... "Waaaahhhh!" Baby woke up! So I gave baby some medicine and we all went to bed. No warm drink for this Monster. I spoke more calmly to my girl and she told me that she couldn't wait and thats why she turned to the side to vomit instead of running towards the end of the bed cos she was afraid she would soil the bedsheets as she did several times before and got a scolding for it. Sigh! What a bad mommy I am.

I lay in bed with negative thoughts swirlling in my head. Mostly frustrated, stressed-up, guilty thoughts. What a way to fall asleep. I didn't have a good sleep either as baby woke up many times throughout the night. And the room smelt of puke. Ewe. My only wish before I slept is that baby would get better and that no one else in the house would fall ill.

This morning.....

My girl woke up coughing then points to her throat and said "Pain". Oh No! Somebody help me Pleasssseeee!

Updated: This afternoon......

Baby has diarrhea three times but otherwise seem ok. Fever under control.

My Girl threw up all of her lunch, refused to drink her milk and fell asleep on the sofa after lunch which is extremely unusual for her. She never wants to nap and definitely not that early. She woke up with a fever. So now I have on my hands two fretty, clingy babies who frets even when I'm carrying or "manjaing" them. Aiyoyo! Headache! We just visited the paed yesterday through all the rain and traffic and waiting. Don't tell me we have to do it again this evening.

Mr MG is so busy with work right now he is in no position to help me out though I know he's trying his best. In fact he needs my support right now and he needs to come home to peace not chaos now more than ever. So, I must remember to try to keep my cool. :)

Now WHY didn't I think of that?

My Girl is at the "Why" stage of childhood development/milestone. She asks a "Why?" for just about everything and adds a "but why?" and a "Yes... but why?" till she gets a satisfactory answer or one which she feels is satisfactory or she'd ask "Why" again immediately after you answer a question. Sometimes after all the "Whys" she answers the original question herself. And her answers often makes more sense than mine. Hahaha. Here's an example:

My girl playing with my handbag strap.

MG: Don't put my handbag over your neck.
My Girl: Why?
MG: Because cannot
My Girl: Why?
MG: Because mummy say cannot lah!

After a while, apparently still not satisfied...

My Girl: Maybe its for your hand only
MG: Yes! Yes. Thats right its for mummy's hand only. (Now why didn't I think of that? Hmmm.)
My Girl: Why?
MG: Because its for the hand only lah! Not for the neck and stop asking so many questions. (Now, everytime I say this, I want to kick myself because I feel that I should not discourage her from asking questions to satisfy her curiousity and to learn. Why, I'd be very guilty indeed if she becomes afraid to ask questions in school later on because of this wouldn't I? Now this goes on in my mind everytime but I can't help myself after the "whys" get a little too tiresome. Bad momma.)
My Girl: Mummy, maybe its a hand bag not a neck bag!
MG: Errrr... Yes. Yes. Its a hand bag not a neck bag.

Stalling Tactics

Children hate to go to sleep. Theres just too much to see, play and do, you see. Mine are no exception. Here's a stalling tactic by my girl during naptime. (These days she is beggining to be more and more caught up with pretend play.)


MG: Ok. Time to sleep. (Says to my girl after putting sleeping baby down on his side of the bed. I sleep in the middle between them both.)
My Girl: I want to water the flowers. (Walks all over the bed with her toy watering can pretending to water the flowers on the bedsheet)
MG: Ok. 3 times only then go to sleep. (3 is my magic number because its her favourite number. Most of the time I can get her to stop whatever she's doing or finish her food etc by saying 3 times only.)

After a while......

My Girl: Mummy, can I water the flowers some more. Its dried up already. (Pointing to the flowers on the bedsheet)
MG: Ok. When you're finished, go to sleep.

After a while.......

MG: Time to sleep. Enough already.
My Girl: Mummy, I want to water some more. The flowers not yet grow.
MG: Ok (Then goes back to reading magazine. No point in forcing her to sleep when she's not sleepy. Or in other words, just too plain lazy and tired to argue or nag her to go to sleep.)

After a while.......

My Girl: Mummy, can you hold the watering can for me? My hands tired. My hands need a rest. Then I can hold my bear bear. (Then she lies down beside me, picks up her beanie bear and smiles.)

Immediately after that.....

My Girl: Bear bear walking up to look at the flowers (walks her beanie bear up my pillow.)
My Girl: Mummy, I want to water the flowers for bear bear. (takes back the toy watering can from me)

Plays with the toy watering can AND beanie bear for a while.....

My Girl: Mummy, I put my head on the pillow but I don't want to close my eyes (Lies down beside me again)

A Minute later.......

My Girl: zzzzzzzzzzz

A Smile A Day Keeps The Blues Away

My kids make me smile many times a day.


Yesterday, there was thunderstorm in the evening again. The wind bellowed, the thunder roared and there was lightning lighting up the skies. Whenever that happens, the power switches in my home often trip causing everything to go dark and frighten the kids. To ease their fears, I would take them to the window to watch the rain together. We marvelled at how strong the wind blew. I informed my girl that lighting comes first before thunder and that she could see lightning and hear thunder. So when we saw the lightning, I taught them to cover their ears in anticipation of the loud thunder that follows. Baby loves it thinking its a funny game and it allays their fears. They love to watch the rain. This is something I learned from Mr MG. He loves rain.

After a while my girl said "Aiyah.... who make wan?... How come the lectrikcity (electricity) always spoil wan?" (we get quite frequent power failure around here). Then she looked at the aircon unit, turned to me and said "Mummy, maybe the aircon is tired. The aircon blow, blow, blow." and she puckered up her lips into a small "O" and blew hard a few times to demonstrate to me how hard the aircon was working! Hahaha. Funny Girl.

And that reminds me of another funny conversation we had at bedtime.

My Girl: Mummy can you tell me the story about Dora and the Living Room?
MG: Oh, you mean the game we were playing this morning. Sorry sweetie, when we started on the game, Auntie and Kong Kong came, so I don't know what the game is all about. Can you tell mummy? (Hehe. Perfect opportunity for her to learn to describe the things she sees)
My Girl: Mummy, Dora go to the living room, then I press, press, press, but I don't know how to press the musical instuments (instruments)... I think its not easy. So I ask Dora to go back to the other room. Got magic. Got grapes and apples and Dora say must press the same thing.
MG: Oh you mean its a matching game...
My Girl: Then I press press the purple box and inside got a baby blanket. (Then she smiles sheepishly for a while, I think becos she couldn't describe further.) Mummy, tomorrow I show you lah!
MG: Ok, goodnight.

With so many smiles I get a day, how to get the blues?

Good Guy Bad Guy

I've learned from many couple friends and relatives that when they try to discipline their child, they often end up with one of them playing the "good guy" and the other one will be the "bad guy" ie one spouse will be the disciplinarian.... the one who scolds etc and the other one is the one with the softer touch ie the one who comforts and says "its ok". The one with the so called softer touch need not necessarily be the mommy in this case.

Well, hubby and I try not to fall into this trap. So far I've noticed that none of us is clearly the good guy/bad guy. We play both equally ie we scold and love them equally and the one who does the scolding will do the comforting as well when everything has cooled down. Its hard, but we made a pact not to interfere when the other is doing the scolding. This is really not that easy though because when you're not the one doing the scolding sometimes you may feel your partner is being too harsh and you want to rush in to protect the child. This happens to both of us equally, I think. We try not to let it happen too often because then the child will get confused with the mixed signals.

I think the worse thing that can happen is when your spouse is scolding the child, you rush to comfort the child and scold your spouse in front of the child, then you and your partner end up arguing in front of the child. This has happened to us before but hmmm..... we really have to stick to our pact of non-interference.

What about you? Who's the good guy/bad guy in your relationship?

Ring! Ring!

Mr MG often calls My Girl while driving back from work and she's getting more and more chatty these days. So for a change, recently, I decided to have her call him instead. Here's what happened:

MG: Come, come, girl, let me write down daddy's telephone number so you can call him.

My Girl: Why write down, not write up?

MG: ----------- (Speechless, no answer and busy writing) Writes the number down wrongly twice and had to cancel it.

My Girl: Mummy why you scratch scratch the paper like that?

MG: Oh, sorry, I wrote the number wrongly so I'm cancelling it.

Later after dialing the number herself, I could see her face light up in a big smile when she heard her daddy answering ....

My Girl: Daddy? How come I didn't hear you calling?

MG: Hahaha. Thats because you called him, sweetie.

My Girl: Daddy, mummy write the number wrongly. (Her daddy must have been rather confused to hear this. Hehe.)

And they proceeded to have a long conversation after that on I don't know what.