Tag Archives: motherhood

mummy milestones

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the first year of my life as a mother, milestones for Ollie was a major thing. I would religiously read books to find out what were the milestones that Ollie was supposed to be hitting, and then compare him against the guide. It kinda gave me a feeling of normalcy, like “phew, Ollie is meeting those milestones”. Or when he was ahead of said milestones, you know…being a mom, I couldn’t help feeling REALLY chuffed about it. Haha.

by the third year, I figured it shouldn’t just be about the milestones that the kids are hitting. There should be milestones for moms as well. And I bet there are some out there. You know, milestones like…

1) eating food that your kid just spat out, especially if it has only gone through like 2 chews in his mouth; or

2) being able to finish breakfast in one go; or

3) being able to go to the bathroom with NO interruptions; or

4) go through a day peacefully with no tantrums or crying; or

5) catching puke successfully with NO spillage on the floor. 

Ahhh..such is my life as a mother. With each mini successes, I unlock a new level of new high or sometimes, new low. Hahaha. But days like today, I look back at them and laugh, and perhaps beam with a wee bit of pride. Sometimes they are mini battles, but at the end of each battle, the kids and I walk out of it unscathed and we love each other a little more.

These days, the milestone I’ve hit is not pressuring my kid to be toilet trained. We have always just asked, and never pressured. It has lead to the day where he announced he had to do a poo and successfully did it on the toilet.

SCORE. Donald said to mark that date, 24 June 2014. Hahah. It meant so much to Daddy cos Daddy was the one next to him, encouraging him. Ollie did it again tonight, and Daddy was proud too.

Ollie has also started announcing more frequently that he needed to go on the toilet. But it has also started a whole new plethora of statements and conversations between Ollie and I. Statements like:

1) *stares at penis* “Why is there a hole?”

2) *farts* “What’s that sound, phhsh?”

3) “Ollie must point down.”

4) *farts again* “What’s that sound, pffbt?”

5) “A, B, C, D, E, F, G….” *sings at the top of his voice*

6) *looks into the bowl between his legs* “There is no egg inside!”

7) “All done. Ollie MUST wipe and flush”.

8) “No more poop. Can flush. Is not egg, is pang sai.”

One must be creative about how to respond, and oh..mummy can get pretty creative. Good grief. I was SO totally not prepared for that.

And then…there was that incident in the public toilet. *groan* Where he happily announced loudly who in his family had a penis and a vagina. Right. Thanks. I’m sure that everyone on the first floor of the library would like to know that.

But hey, now I’m prepared for that. Just waiting for round #2 when QT starts making statements like this too.

 

 

cooking meals

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cooking with two kids and no helper? cooking would probably be a mayhem or a wee bit hectic.

my first tip: one pot/dish everything.

it is my shortcut way of cooking. haha. hey, it makes you really creative about cooking the kind of food that could possibly fit in a one pot dish, which usually means a type of meat and veggies, accompanying carbo should be like rice, bread or pasta. so far, I have excelled at these dishes:

1) 酿豆腐 / yong tau fu with additional meat balls and veggies thrown in
2) oxtail stew (ooo tender fall apart beef)
3) beef stew (a tomato based stew)
4) beef bolognaise (from scratch thankewberry much. none of those jar thingys)
5) alfredo pasta
6) shephard’s pie (mmM..mashed potatoes, yum!)
7) a tofu with minced pork hotpot

seems like Chinese food..not a lot of one pot everything eh? Buuuuut you can steam food!

my second tip: invest in an electric steamer

my electric steamer is a hand-me-down and it is a God-send. With Ollie, I have burnt so many dishes it is not funny. You know..cook/fry halfway, monster fusses, tend to monster, forget about dish, smells something burning…uh-oh. Yup. That kind of situation.

With an electric steamer, I just pop some chicken marylands (basically chicken thighs with the drumstick and bone in) on a plate, with ginger, some 花调酒 (rice wine), some sesame oil and scatter some wolfberries on it, and we are good to go. With two tiers, I can steam chicken or eggs on one tier and have a double boiled soup on the upper tier! Major lifesaver.

my third tip: FREEZE your food.

before QT came along, I kinda starting trialling out what food would freeze well and what wouldn’t. I was already freezing meat stock that I use for cooking chicken macaroni soup. It was so handy to make litres of stock, put them in sizeable containers (usually about 2.5 containers for us) and then freeze it. It came in really handy whenever we wanted to have chicken macaroni soup, or some stock to cook 白斩鸡 for chicken rice.

It went on to freezing little packets of soup in breastmilk storage bags for Ollie. I would cook some soup for dinner and then scoop out 2-3 bags of 200mls to freeze. So whenever Donald and I preferred some curry for dinner, the soup would come in for Ollie to have it with his rice instead of curry. Toddler meals solved!

Other foods I have frozen so far (both for family meals and toddler meals):
– bolognaise sauce (with beef and carrots)
– sayur lodeh (veggies & fried beancurd)
– mushroom soup
– pumpkin soup
– miscellaneous soup packets for Ollie (老黄瓜, ABC soup)
– kimchi stew

Freezing food..saving my sanity on days that I am too lazy to cook and yet feel guilty about going out to eat unhealthy food. Haha.

Seriously, motherhood really does make one get creative to work around the kids!

Category: Daily, Food | Tags: ,

realities of a SAHM

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as glamourous as I will be with my boys.

as glamourous as I will be with my boys.

I take a look at the parenting blogs out there, and their posts are littered with gorgeous photos, and the parents look damn fashionable lah. you know, you can see the time and effort they take to look good in the photo.

me? hah. the postman will probably be lucky if I wore a bra to the door (hubby’s all “must be decent!!” and stuff). eh, having said that, I am currently nursing a 4mo baby on demand, so screw saggy boobs and bras (for now). Then again, I have very poor fashion sense, and pretty much go for what is convenient and comfortable. My closest friends will attest to that.

so, one a rainy Friday arvo, on my to the dermatologist’s (damn you, eczema!!), I walked out of the train and saw a mom pushing a stroller with a kid inside, and with another kid walking behind her. I was in awe. Younger kid in stroller, and older kid walking behind no questions asked. Wow. At that point, I envisioned the same thing happening to me…

…except it will probably not be the case. *sigh*.

You will see a mom (me) pushing the stroller really quickly with poor QT inside and chasing after a runaway toddler, yelling “Oliver! Come back here this instant!!“. Super tak glam sight. Extreme auntified. Okay, granted the kid looked older than Ollie. Maybe about 3.5yo? So I can be slightly hopeful and maybe things will be the case when Ollie turns 3.5yo next July.

I mean I did wonder what life would be like with two kids, and even going out with two kids. Establishing a fairly rigid nap routine allows me to anticipate when things may go awry. Initially, I was a little apprehensive of taking two kids out. But now, hey, we are venturing out further and for longer periods as well. I’ll review this again when QT is mobile, but for now, I’ll take it for what it’s worth!! Only downside is poor Ollie has to remain mostly seated in the stroller because this mummy doesn’t fancy running after him with a baby in the carrier. There have been a couple of times where I allowed him out of the stroller so he can walk but the condition was that he would have to hold my hand. So far so good!

My realities as a SAHM so far are that:
1) household chores really take a backseat, until I can summon my ass off the sofa to go do it. It is WAY more fun to watch cartoons with monster #1 =P

2) I learnt to cook everything in one pot. veggies & meat in one pot. and you eat that for lunch and dinner. and it has to be toddler approved.

3) how I envisioned spending my time with the kids: spelling, reading, learning new words, Mandarin, numbers, puzzles.
what is actually being done: hey Ollie, Umizoomi is starting soon! (disclaimer: he gets to watch tv up to 10am and then we either read a book, some craft or playing, or he self-entertains)

4) I subscribed to food magazines so that I can whip up awesome food for hubby and the kids; totally not happening when you have kids. special meals have been relegated to once a week. everything else is basic & simple (i.e., should not take more than 10 minutes to prepare).

5) when monster #1 at 4mos fusses, he is picked up almost immediately. when it comes to monster #2….ah he can wait. (okay lah..not all the time. it’s like times when you have just ONE more pole of laundry to hang out, you know??)

6) finding excuses to cut down on craft time cos of the clean up after. I mean, I have to make sure monster #2 is fully fed before I can shower monster #1 after fingerpainting. And do you know how greasy homemade play-dough is and the prints it makes on the floor..and..and greasy toddler footprints all over the floor..argh.

aye. okay, to be fair, there are days where I feel I can conquer anything (i.e., the kids are not cranky, we had a good start to the day..etc), and we do more things together, and everyone gets a treat. monster #1 gets to do fingerpainting, mummy bakes some cookies/brownies/muffins, daddy gets a better than basic & simple meal. there are good days, and I think I am getting better at getting more of those good days.

at least until the third kid comes along and throws a spanner into the works. hah. till then.

Category: Daily | Tags: ,