Guess what? My little boy is home! This mummy is one happy mummy and grins from ear to ear despite being woken up in the middle of the night for milk feeds and also in the morning to an invitation to play. I willingly obliged and earned big and winning smiles from the boy who was happy that his mummy for once agreed to wake up in darkness to play toys with him! As you can see, a happy mummy is a willing mummy

He has learned quite a lot of things in the one week he was with his grandparents. He has improved in making up his funny sentences and is also picking up more words in different dialects. I doubt he understands them, but he repeats the words anyway. It’s an improvement from the time when he would just laugh when he hears anyone speak in any language other than English.

Last night when we were putting him to bed, the last sentence that he said to his daddy before he fell asleep was this:

“Papa, press boy boy back”

He wanted a back rub, and the father obliged. Not long after a gentle back and head rub, he was in dreamland. He woke up several times in the night, possibly from dreams because once he woke up saying “No!” and was crying, and other times he just kept saying “I want to turn there” and kept rolling this way and that on the bed. Must’ve played too much in the day!

This morning, he went to the babysitter’s place without a fuss which made him all the more adorable. I thought he would fuss a little bit, having been away for a week. It was surprising and we were glad that he seems happy to go to the babysitter’s again.

Anyway, no matter how he would have behaved, I’m sure I would be just as happy to have him home. It’s a bonus that he’s behaving so well and such a good boy. Makes me a truly happy mummy! Now I’m looking forward to the end of the day to get off work to more big smiles!

To read more parenting related articles, click here: Life As A Mummy

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Some updates about how the boy is doing at the new babysitter’s place. I’m glad to say that I was worrying for nothing yesterday as he was doing just fine. No doubt he did cry badly once in the afternoon yesterday, but that was quite expected seeing that it was his first day with total strangers, right? I expected him to have more moments of unease but he apparently did not. And this morning before going over to the babysitter’s, I told him that we’ll be going to her place for him to play with the aunty and uncle there, and he showed no signs of resistance nor was he unhappy. So with that, I’m very happy that so far the transition has been rather smooth.

Today, both my better half and I are off from work. It’s been a long time since we both have taken time from work on a weekday together and do nothing. But we’re not spending time together. In fact, we’re both doing our own things, having complete me-time to ourselves. I’m at home watching my Wah Lai Toi, blogging and browsing the internet looking for good bargains and promotional products, while he’s gone out for a much needed Thai massage to ease his back. This morning we went out for brunch at a coffee shop which we’ve been unable to do for so long! We actually enjoyed being able to eat leisurely and read the newspapers. We haven’t been to coffee shops for a long time and it was refreshing for a change!

But while we are spending me time, I also feel guilt that the little boy is at the babysitter’s. I think this is normal, as other mummies like Amy and Busy Bee have shared similar feelings too. But like Busy Bee says, we all need some time alone to keep refreshed.

Anyway, I have a week more of such me time and I don’t think it’s too long more for me to enjoy the time. I wonder if I would get bored doing this over a long period of time. Could I just try this out for 6 months? I so wish…

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After more than a week of spending the entire day with my little boy, today I finally had to send him back to be taken care by the babysitter. I normally would miss him terribly having to send him to the babysitter after just spending the weekend with him, what’s more this time I spent the whole week with him and we had so much fun and love throughout the week. It’s also made harder today because he’s starting his first day with a new babysitter.

While we got ready to go out this morning, he was happily playing and walking about the room. Suddenly, he came up to me and hugged me. Then he walked over to his daddy and hugged him too. It made me swallow a lump in my throat. I had half the mind of not sending him to the babysitter today, and postpone it to tomorrow. But the practical part of me knew that’s not what I should do. He had to start his first day with the new babysitter anyhow, and it won’t get any easier any other day.

So we went and I was quite happy that he was rather at ease at his second home. He walked about and found nooks and corners to play hide and seek. I hung around to watch him get used to being at the new place, playing his familiar toys, reading his favourite books, eating his bread and cookies and drinking his milk, having a bath and even poo-ed!

I found myself reluctant to leave even though it was already well past 11am, and it was time for me to take off and let him get accustomed to things without me around. So whilst he was distracted in play, I sneaked out of the house and headed home. It was quite hard for me to tear myself away from him, and at the same time wondering how he is doing.

I wondered even up to now whether he cried when he realised that I was not there, whether he asked for me, whether he was happy, whether he was eating and drinking his milk, whether he’s getting his nap. I don’t dare to call the babysitter to ask how he is either, because I know the moment I hear his voice or worse yet, his cries, I would go weak.

Sometimes I really wonder whether this going to a new babysitter business is harder for him or me.

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I’m having a really long break from work this new year. I’m only going back to work after Chap Goh Meh, isn’t that just great? I love it! But of course it comes with a very good reason. I’m taking time off to help my little boy settle in at the new babysitter’s when he starts going there on Monday. I plan to stay for a while when I first drop him there and check up on him off and on through the day for a week. I truly hope it’s not going to be difficult for him.

Anyway, how was your new year? It’s been a good break for us. We’ve visited most of our family members by now. The boy has met many of his cousins, aunts and uncles, grandaunts and granduncles too. He’s very well behaved when in other people’s homes, so much so that they think he’s a real gentle little boy whereas at home, he’s the king of the house and is very loud! It has been fun watching his antics when mixing around with other kids and adults alike.

He’s also learned some new words in the last one week. We taught him to greet people Gong Xi Fa Cai; he can pronounce “ang pow” very well; he also learned the word “botak” when we used it while showing him a picture of him as a bald baby! But most impressive of all, he learned how to count 1 to 10! I don’t think he understands that he’s counting numbers, he just knows the sequence of the words one, two, three…etc. For that, we’re already extremely happy and proud of him!

While the little boy learns all this during the new year, I’ve been putting my cooking skill to use during this period. You see, he doesn’t quite want to eat his porridge as main meals anymore. For a while now he’s been loving steamed white rice which I sometimes feed him when we eat. Seeing that he doesn’t want his porridge and asks for rice, I decided to cook him rice and steam fish and vegetables for him. The daddy went one step further, pan frying fish and eggs for him. Unfortunately, our efforts in the kithen didn’t pay off that much. He ate a little bit and would rather food that we didn’t cook! Sigh, are we bad cooks or what? I guess so.

Speaking of cooking, I also got to witness for the first time how the famous Hakka dish of abacus is being made. During the new year, my PILs were trying the dish out for the first time and it was actually pretty good. Here are some pictures of the process in shaping up the abacus. Sorry, no pictures of the completed dish because my camera battery ran out by then!

The yam all rolled up into little balls

They were gently flattened down with a chopstick

Here they are, ready to be soaked in water

Don’t they look quite like “tong yuen” too?

Fishing out the soaked yam, ready to be stir fried

How was your new year? Any good stories to share? I bet you have, so share your new year time with us.

By the way, I’ll be running a giveaway soon, and if you are headed towards a holiday in the US or live in the US, stay tuned for it!

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Most kids, when growing up, have some kind of a security blanket, or in my case, was a little baby bolster. Did you have any favourite pillows, bolster, blanket, soft toy, etc as yours? I’ve had mine right up to the age of 20-something before I finally threw it out. You can imagine how unbelievably unusable a condition it is. Since I threw it out, I got a new one. Yes, I could never be rid of it completely. I’ve been using this newer one for a few years now and guess what? I’m now finding myself sharing it with my son!

He’s got his own sets of pillows and a bolster and he’s used to hugging his bolster to sleep. His bolster is the same size as mine. (Ahem. Yes, I know you’ve raised your brows at me!) Anyway, he sometimes uses mine to sleep instead of his own. Last night was one of those times. But the difference last night was that when the daddy tried to switch him to using his instead of mine, he refused!

He contentedly hugged it, and even put it against his face and inhaled deeply. He was smelling my little bolster! It was the sweetest sight to me. The daddy had a good time laughing, saying he likes my smell. I, on the other hand, was beaming. I’m attached to my little bolster, but I am very willing to give it up just because my little boy likes it so much.

Sometimes, the smallest things in life truly make a wonderful day and put the sweetest smile on your face. Have you missed yours? Look harder, they are usually right under your noses.

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