Mothers’ Day 2012

My first mothers’ day flowers from my son…

He did the colouring himself, and although he had assistance with the assembly, it doesn’t make them any less dear to a doting mother.

How was your mothers’ day?

I was greeted first thing in the morning by a big wet slobbery *Muuuuuuuak* right on the mouth from my son. Also from hubs, but with much less slobber.

And I had breakfast cooked for me by my lovely hubby…

I feel food somehow tastes nicer when someone else cooks it for me.

Hope it was a good day for you too.

The Avengers (Surprise) Initiative

Hubs has known me for nearly one third of his life and been married to me for almost a quarter of his life.

Throughout our years together, I’ve always enjoyed making a big deal over his birthday… not necessarily with big crowds and fanfare, but at least something significant between the two of us.

I had left a few years pass by without planning anything out of the ordinary (of course still celebrate with a special dinner or outing together). But this year I decided I wanted to organise another memorable birthday surprise.

I was cracking my head for ideas when out of the blue, I picked up a remark that made me realise how much hubs was raring to go and see the new Avengers movie.

Our church was planning a big movie screening of the film as an outreach event. I was about to cross that event off our list since I didn’t think we'd want to bother finding a babysitter for Nathan and all. But hubby mentioned casually that maybe he could go watch it himself if I didn’t mind. So that got me thinking.

This was what I did…

I told hubs we could go watch the movie with the church together. Our good friends, Jamie and Edmund, had already offered to babysit so we had that department covered.

Our friends and collaborators: Jamie and Edmund and their little Sophie

Secretly, I had purchased a set of La Premiere luxury cinema tickets at the same screening time as the church’s event. I even enlisted the help of my friend Jamie to buy the tickets to avoid leaving a paper trail with our credit card (yes, I think of everything!)

On D-day, everything proceeded like any normal outing; we got Nathan ready, drove to Jamie and Edmund’s to drop Nathan off for his play date with Sophie and headed to the cinema. I asked hubs to park the car while I quickly rushed in to pick up the La Premiere tickets from the box office.

As we walked toward the cinema entrance, I subtly steered him toward the La Premiere section. At the entrance he stopped and look confusedly at me. I then whipped out the tickets and handed them to him with a big smile and declared “Happy Birthday, honey!”

A big grin appeared on his face as it started to dawn on him what was going on. We went on upstairs to the La Premiere lounge to enjoy our free flow popcorn and drinks.

We had a terrific time and it was really nice having a real one-on-one pak-tor session which we haven’t had since last August. I could tell he was really pleased although he kept remarking how sneaky I was planning this whole thing. Big credit to our friends Jamie and Edmund, couldn’t have done it without them!

Happy birth-month, hon! *muaks*

All in a day’s work

A fairly recent personal revelation: Looking after kids is WORK.

You know those conversations with those stay-at-home-mums who ‘don’t go to work’ but to be politically correct we say “Oh, but you do work! You are taking care of the kids”. Well, it’s not just a politically correct statement; it is the honest to goodness truth.

I used to wonder what on earth those stay-at-home-mums do all day to occupy themselves. I mean after all, children just need to eat, nap and play all day, but what does the mother do whilst the kids are playing nicely by themselves and napping and in between those activities?

If you’re wondering the same thing, I shall enlighten your curiosity by sharing a sample schedule of one of my stay-at-home days:

7.00am Wake up, wash up and change Nathan out of his pyjamas

7.15am Prepare breakfast

7.30am Feed Nathan breakfast. Nathan now must to have his own empty bowl and spoon to feed Teddy and I whilst I spoon his breakfast into his mouth. Sometimes he wants to feed himself and the task becomes an even messier and time-consuming task then it normally is.

8.00am Clean up breakfast mess and dishes

8.15am Organise laundry to load into the washing machine. Nathan tries to ‘help’ by pulling out his clean clothes from the drawer and dumping them into the basket

8.30am Nathan usually does a poo around this time. Changing nappies has now become a real physical activity of keeping a firm hold on Nathan’s legs and distracting him with a toy while I wipe him clean. We often end up doing what another blogger called ‘the crocodile death roll’ with him yelling, flipping, rolling and trying to desperately to crawl away while I hold on to his legs, ending up in the wheelbarrow race position (Nathan being the wheelbarrow).

8.45am Hang up laundry. Nathan tries to ‘help’ by running away with the peg basket, tipping the pegs out and poking individual pegs into the ground

9.00am Get Nathan ready to go out, pack bag with water, milk, snacks, spare nappies, clothes, wipes etc.

9.15am Get myself ready. I do the 5-minute routine of tinted moisturiser, cheek-bronzer and a swipe of lipbalm

9.20am Load Nathan and bag into the car and drive off to nearby shopping centre

9.30am Arrive just in time for ‘Story Time’ at the local library. I take advantage of such programs to let Nathan have some organised activity where they do singing, tell stories and do some craft-time with the kids. He is one of the youngest in the group, so most of the time I have to keep him occupied with snacks during story time and help him with his craft activity.

10.30am Stop by the shops for groceries/supplies

10.45am Head home for lunch

11.00am Prepare Nathan’s lunch

11.30am Feed Nathan lunch (refer to 7.30am breakfast time for description of the process)

12.00pm Change Nathan’s nappy, give him his milk and put him down for nap

12.15pm Eat my lunch

12.30pm Clean up lunch mess, wash dishes etc.

01.00pm Catch up on any housework (e.g. cleaning, folding laundry) or catch up on sewing, blogging, emails etc.

01.45pm Start dinner prep (slicing, chopping, marinating etc.)

02.30pm Nathan starts stirring and wakes up from nap

02.45pm Change Nathan’s nappy (repeat ‘crocodile death roll’ manoeuvre)

03.00pm Give Nathan his afternoon snack. Sometimes I let him feed himself which leads to the following result…

03.30pm Spend some play-time with Nathan, e.g. reading or playing together with him, sometimes I try do something different like making playdoh or doing a craft/colouring activity with him

04.30pm Head outside to take down laundry. Nathan tries to ‘help’ in his own way by emptying  the peg basket and tossing pegs into the laundry basket.

04.45pm Take Nathan out to the backyard for some outdoor exercise, usually he just likes to run around and occasionally stops to pick up some bits of stones or sticks and runs back to give them to me

05.00pm Start preparing dinner

05.30pm Feed Nathan his dinner (see 7.30am breakfast and 11.30am lunch for description of process)

06.00pm Hubby arrives home and plays with Nathan while I finish cooking dinner

06.30pm Feed Nathan his ‘dessert’ - usually fruit with custard or yoghurt

07.00pm Hubby bathes Nathan while I prepare his pyjamas, night nappy and milk

07.15pm Hubby gives Nathan his milk and puts him to bed

07.30pm Nathan finally in bed while hubby and I finally sit down for dinner

I can tell you this schedule is totally different compared to my go-to-office days. At the end of the day I’m really wiped out. Sometimes by 9.00/9.30pm I’m already collapsed in bed. Looking after, lifting, carrying and running around after an active 16-month is no walk in the park - especially since he’s now fully transitioned to just one nap a day.

But still there is this underlying idea that staying at home to look after the kids is not in a sense ‘real’ work. Even I myself still subconsciously think so. Sometimes when people ask me whether I’ve gone back to work, I catch myself replying “oh, I work on XYZ days but I stay at home to look after Nathan the other days”. Then I think to myself and realise: There is a reason I need to PAY someone to look after my child for me. Feeding, changing and teaching/playing with a child IS work, PHYSICAL HARD WORK.

Anyway, that’s my long-winded way of explaining the lack of updates on my blog recently.

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