My son's Angry Birds 7th birthday party - The movie story

One of the surprises I planned to give to my son on this party was a movie about him, about his journey since he was born, until now. This is my favorite present to give to someone special on his/her special day. I have been making many short movies/slideshow since 2003. Usually I used Windows Movie Maker together with any photo editing software. But this time, I use my new Macbook... :) 

I started to make the movie about my son in early October this year. I collected all his home-videos and photos. I also searched for the right soundtracks for the movie. I gave the title "The Kiwi Journey", as my son is a New Zealander. But since I'm quite new to Mac OS, I had to learn about it first. I used iMovie together with iPhoto and iTunes. It was a very tiring project to do as I could only do it once my kids were asleep. But I enjoyed it. I get more and more familiar with the Macbook, the iMovie, and the iPhoto.

So, after staying awake long hours every night, I finally completed the movie just 3 days before the D-day. 

I brought my laptop to the place where the party would be held to try the projector. I wanted to see how the movie would show up in the projector screen. Everything was good and the movie was ready for screening on the birthday party. Again, just like the cake, I was very pleased with the result. The movie brought tears to my eyes every time I watched it. I can't believe how fast time flies! My little baby boy who was born 7 years ago, has grown up so fast to be a fine young boy ready for more adventure in his own way. Oh my...I can't believe I have become a mother for 7 years! I hope I have been a good mother for all these years.

I prefer not to show it here because the movie contains many private home videos and photos. But I can tell you one thing, this movie has blown away my audience they asked for an encore!...:)

Happy Halloween 2010

Halloween is very famous in The Philippines. It is a yearly tradition that children are looking forward to because they get a chance to collect candies/treats as many as they can during the trick or treat.

Our house subdivision always holds the Halloween party once a year. This year's theme is "Villains in the Village". We had to dress up like villains in Disney movies/Batman/Superman.

Before the party began, the children from the subdivision would go around the complex for trick or treat, then we would continue with the Halloween party. There were many competitions held during the Halloween Party; such as the best costume, the most original design, and the scariest. There was also a competition for the best decorated house.

I like to make and design everything by myself. I always try to minimize the cost as much as possible. I really enjoyed making the Halloween decoration and costumes with any recycled materials. I halfway made the trick or treat loot basket from the old newspaper, but my son preferred to have the big green pumpkin basket he saw at the mall. That pumpkin basket was the only expensive thing in my budget. It cost me 99 Pesos (= USD2.2). All other materials cost me nothing to less than 90 Pesos (= USD2). 

Since at this time in Philippines is the typhoon season, I decorated my house with Halloween decorations that can stand the rain and the wind. Although my house decoration didn't win, I'm quite happy with it. I have a witch made of garbage bag guarding my gate..:)

As for the costumes, I made my son's Chernabog (from Disney movie Fantasia) costume from garbage bag, leftover wire, and old newspapers. For my daughter's Queen of heart (from Disney movie Alice in Wonderland) costume, I made the skirt from plastic string and from what ever I have in my storage room. 

As for me, I chose to dress up as the evil Queen from Snow White Disney movie. I made my cloak from garbage bag combined with what ever I have in my closet...:)

And for my husband, since he refused to wear anything weird and scary, I asked him to dress up as Lex Luthor from Superman which required him to dress up like what he normally wears to go to work. My husband is balding, by the way, which was another reason why I chose Lex Luthor character for him... :)

The Halloween party started at 5PM but the trick or treat started at 3PM. It was raining so heavily just before 3PM. I was in doubt if I should send my children out for trick or treating. But then the rain stopped. So, I accompanied my daughter first joining all other children to walk around the subdivision collecting the treats. My son was still taking a nap. We went from one house to another house. Candies were not the only thing to be given as the treats. There were many different kinds of treats my daughter got. There was a cotton candy (with the cotton candy guy made it in front of the kids) given out by one of the house in our subdivision. There was a barbecue sausage, a cup cake, and some juice that were also given out by a different house. There was also a cup of nice lemon tea and a balloon for the children given out by another house.

After an hour and a half going around the subdivision, my daughter and I were exhausted. My left hand was aching so much because I had to carry her all the time. She refused to walk when she was afraid to see any scary figure she met on the street. It was our first time to join this kind of activity so I didn't know that we were allowed to drive around the subdivision instead of walking. I saw many parents drove their kids around subdivision. Lesson learnt...:) Next time I will just drive my kids around for trick or treating...:)

When I entered the house, my son just woke up. I quickly asked him to catch up with other kids to collect his treats, but unfortunately, the rain came back. So, he only managed to collect some candies from my neighbors. I was ready to drive him around to catch up with other kids when I realized that we already had to get ready for the Halloween party in the clubhouse. 

So, every one took shower and quickly wore our villain costumes.Within half an hour, we were already in the clubhouse. There were so many people attending the Halloween party. It was full house at the clubhouse.

When we arrived, I saw every head turned to see me. Their facial expressions were so stunned as if they just saw a ghost! They said I looked exactly like the wicked Queen in Snow White, beautiful but evil...whahaha... :-D Many people took an opportunity to take picture with me. Everyone also asked me to join the Parent-child Best costume competition. They were so sure that I would win the competition.

So, when the Parent-child competition was announced, I went up to the stage with my son. He was all black just like Chernabog from the movie Fantasia in 1940. Every one cheered and took many photographs of us. Honestly, for a moment, I felt like a movie star... :-D

After dinner was distributed, came the announcement for the best costume. I was so surprised when my son's costume won the Most Original design costume for his age category. I never expected that his costume was going to win. But every one told me that his costume was very unique because it was the only one that was hand made and was made out of recycled materials. He won a bookstore voucher worth 200 Pesos...:)

Then, I had another reason to smile, as every one had told me before, my costume won the best costume for parent-child category.... :-D My son and I won a dining voucher worth 250 Pesos from a very nice restaurant. So, total winning prize I received was 450 Pesos. I got back all the money I spent for the costume and decorations... :-D

I felt so grateful that every one was so supportive of me. They acknowledged my creativity and design. I was very happy that night. Wow! I really could not stop praising the Lord for helping me to make all these happened. I always believe in Him even on Halloween. My son and I were already quite sick during the process of making the costume and decoration. We recovered just in time for all of these.

Everyone was very happy. We all had a blast, especially my children who managed to collect 2 big pumpkin basket of candies and toys during trick or treat and during the party. We certainly look forward to attend the same party next year with a different theme... :)

Building a better communication with your children

In the past 2 weeks my husband and I really have a hard time talking and educating our son. We see that the older he is, the stronger his rejection towards anything we say and the more difficult to deal with his emotion. Instead of getting him to do like what we want him to do, we would end up fighting or arguing with him because we loose our temper and our coolness. 

We love our son very much and we want the best of everything for him. We want to raise him to be a better person than we are. But then, we were so clueless and hopeless. I always ended up crying at night because I just feel so bad if I have to scream at him all the time. I loose my voice and he will still not listen to me and even resist me stronger. 

As usual, when I am loosing my hope, God comes to the rescue. I received a small booklet today from my son's school about how parents can improve the communication with their children. The booklet uses the book How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish as the reference.

Oh thank you, God! This is exactly what I urgently need for I have completely lost my way to talk to my son. The booklet has every information I need and it is presented in funny pictures that makes it easy to relate to each situation I experience. The language is very simple too. The examples are real so I can understand easily how I would react the next time I am faced with the same situation. There is a practice section too in where I can fill in the blank with the right and proper word to say to make sure that my kids will listen to my words.

I am really grateful that I got that booklet today. That means I can start to learn to build better ways to communicate with my son before the anger and the emotion destroy everything. I think every parent should really know the way to properly communicate with their children so that they can have a wonderful relationship with their children all the time. For the children, they will have a very good memory about their parents because their parents have become their best friends too. I recommend to every parent to read How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. As parents, we need to have a clear guideline on how to win over our children. We have to initiate the good and proper way to talk and to listen so that our children can see and follow our path. This is important because just as James Baldwin said,

"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them."

Nama untuk warga dunia

Keluarga kecil saya terdiri dari berbagai macam kewarganegaraan. Saya orang Indonesia yg menikah dengan orang Malaysia keturunan cina. Ke 2 anak kami pun berbeda kewarganegaraan; yang besar berwarganegara New Zealand, dan yang kecil berwarganegara Malaysia.

Seperti umumnya orang Indonesia, saya tidak punya family name. Family name saya dapat dari family name suami saya setelah saya menikah. Nama asli saya (given name) pun tidak berbau Indonesia.

Sedangkan suami saya, meskipun dia keturunan cina, dia tidak memakai nama cina. Namanya lebih berbau international seperti kebanyakan nama orang America/Eropa. Cuma family namenya saja yang menggunakan nama cina.

Anak-anak kami dinamai berdasarkan film yang kami berdua suka. Supaya adil, kami berdua memberi nama anak2 kami. Anak pertama , nama pertamanya (first name) saya yang kasih. Namanya sama dengan bintang film ganteng idola saya...:) Nama tengahnya (middle name) yang memberi nama suami saya. Berhubung dia tidak terlalu kreatif dan tidak siap, dia ambil dari nama tengahnya sendiri.

Untuk anak ke 2, kebalikannya, first namenya yang kasih nama adalah suami saya. Suami saya mengambil nama leading lady di film kesukaannya untuk first name anak kedua kami. Middle namenya saya yang kasih. Nama tengahnya saya ambil dari nama karakter di film kesukaan saya.

Nama keluarga harus diberi mengikuti nama keluarga suami saya.

Nama anak-anak kami pun tidak terlalu aneh-aneh dengan pertimbangan karena kami keluarga United Nations dan kemungkinan untuk travelling keliling dunia cukup tinggi. Jadi, nama anak-anak harus mengikuti template nama di passport supaya mudah dibaca dan diterima di seluruh dunia.

Sebagai orang Indonesia yg tidak punya family name, saya sudah tahu bagaimana repotnya kalau berurusan dengan imigrasi terutama di luar Indonesia. Ditambah lagi nama saya sama sekali tidak berbau Indonesia. Kalau sudah keluar Indonesia, tidak ada orang percaya kalau saya orang Indonesia. Orang asing mengira saya orang Fiipina karena nama dan wajah saya yang seperti kebanyakan orang Filipina.

Sebelum saya menikah, agar saya dapat membuat passport, saya harus menciptakan nama keluarga (last name/family name). Tapi berhubung di akte kelahiran pun tidak ada nama keluarga, jadi yg ada nama baptis lah yg dipakai untuk last name karena kebetulan saya menempatkan nama baptis saya diurutan belakang.

Setelah saya menikah, saya harus mengganti susunan nama saya agar sesuai dengan template passport di seluruh dunia. Suami saya yang membantu menyusun ulang nama saya agar saya punya first name, middle name, dan family name. Akhirnya, sampai sekarang saya memakai nama yang baru tersebut.

Berdasarkan pengalaman pribadi, saya tidak mau anak-anak saya mengalami kesulitan di masa depan dengan nama mereka. Jadi saya dan suami saya sepakat memberi nama yang mudah diterima oleh masyarakat dunia. Saya dan suami pun sepakat untuk tidak menambahkan nama cina untuk anak-anak kami dengan pertimbangan yang sama. Kami berharap agar anak-anak kami dapat memiliki kesempatan lebih luas di bagian negara manapun tanpa harus pusing dengan nama mereka dan kami juga tidak ingin mereka dikategorikan dalam salah satu kelompok masyarakat di dunia.

Bagaimana dengan anda? Pertimbangan apakah yang anda ambil ketika memberi nama anak-anak anda?

Learn to appreciate your other half

It is four minutes to 10 o'clock at night, my husband is still outside for some office work and my 2 children have been asleep for more than an hour. Not every night they go to bed so early like right now. They must be exhausted for I took them for swimming this afternoon for 2 hours. So, now I am having my me-time all alone in this cold quiet night. I have many things I want to do now that I can concentrate fully on what I do, such as reading the novel, continue writing my blog, watching TV while munching some Ipoh peanuts I got from one of my husband's colleague who visited Malaysia, or I could just play game on Facebook. These are things I would not be able to do when the children are awake. Let me start by continuing on writing my blog so that I will have a new post. Let's see if I can fight the temptation of playing games, especially playing Bejeweled Blitz that I love very much...:)

Yesterday one of my contacts in Facebook wrote the status like this, "Thanks to my wife.  Love you full!" Apparently they just finished moving house and this friend of mine felt grateful with all the help he got during that period, especially the help he got from his wife who has done the sorting, packing, and taking care of everything else including their 3 children all by herself.  He himself had to take care of his work in the office most of the time. He knew it was not easy for his wife to handle things by herself and the fact that she managed to complete everything and has made the transition to the new house as smoothly as possible was something great that he really need to appreciate.
Nearly a month ago I moved house too. This was my 8th time of moving house. Among the 8, this was quite the easiest one because I didn't have to move house to a different country across the sea as in the other 7. Also this time I had some help from my 2 maids.  The previous 7 times, I had to do the complete set of moving house procedures all by myself.  The hardest was the 5th when I had to move house from New Zealand to Kuching, Malaysia. At that time, I also just gave birth to my first child and was all alone. So, compared to the 5th, the 8th transition to the new house was the easiest one.

Even though it was the easiest one, still, the complete set of moving house procedures have to be followed. Since I had 2 maids, they were the ones to do the packing and the moving for me while I took care of all important stuffs such as dealing with the house owner, making sure the new house was livable, and buying the furniture since the new house was unfurnished. I also had to take care of the children. As usual, my other half could only take care of his work in the office. Even this time, he was overseas for a month. So, I tried my best to work together with the house owner to make sure everything was fine in the house before we started to move or at least, before my husband came back. Every single thing in the new house that didn't work properly, I would point out so that it could be fixed. Praised the Lord the house owner is such a wonderful man. He was very helpful and cared about my requests very much. I felt great that he was willing to listen to me and he made sure everything was done properly.

Finally, when my other half came back home, things in the new house were ready and everything has been moved to the new house, except for the TV and the stereo system. My husband was very surprised that I managed to take care of everything by myself. He was very satisfied with the new house. He said he liked the new house better. I told him that is because I have made sure that the new house was ready for us to stay. I have learned my lesson from the experiences of moving house many times; especially the fact that I always had to do everything by myself. Thank God, my husband understood that all these moving things are never easy for me. He gave me a hug and kissed me. He said, "Thank you very much, dear. I know I can count on you." He didn't announce it on the Facebook though and neither did I because I think that is enough for me to see that my husband has appreciated my hard work and my support for him. I felt really good and I remember that every time I enter the house. Many times my husband asked me why I always smile when I enter the house. I told him that's because I remember the time when you hugged and kissed me and said Thank you to me. He said I'm crazy…:) Oh well, he may not realize that his simple act has done wonder to lift up my spirit. I know it very well that appreciating someone's hard work always brings a positive energy to that person and to the relationship with that person. So, I am also trying my best every time to appreciate what my husband does to me. I believe that a simple word like 'thank you', especially when it is added with an act of love such as hug or kiss, it will help to maintain the relationship. This is important for our marriage. So, yeah, start to learn to appreciate your other half. It will do the magic to help you to bring her/him closer to you.

You have completed my life.

Two years ago every time I went to the mall, my heart ached. I saw there were many beautiful dresses for little girls. It was not easy to find great cloths for my little boy. Boy's attire was very plain and boring, not like those for little girls. I told myself, "If only I had a little girl, she would be very beautiful wearing those beautiful dresses." I felt that there was something missing in my life without the presence of a little girl that I could dress her up like a little princess.

Happy Melahirkan

Sebagai seorang wanita, pengalaman hidup yang paling menakjubkan bagi saya adalah pengalaman mengandung dan melahirkan anak-anak saya. Ingatan saya segera meluncur ke saat saya mengandung dan melahirkan anak pertama yang sudah saya tunggu-tunggu selama 5 tahun. Meskipun peristiwa tersebut terjadi 6 tahun yang lalu, saya masih ingat segala perasaan campur aduk yang saya rasakan: rasa bahagia, takut, panik, dan cemas. Saya bahagia dengan kehamilan ini tetapi saya tidak terlalu PD untuk melahirkannya karena saya tidak memiliki pengetahuan dan pengalaman melahirkan karena ini adalah kehamilan saya yang pertama. Lagipula saat itu saya berada di negara orang, tidak ada sanak keluarga yang mendampingi saya dan saya sedang berusaha keras menamatkan sekolah. Selama hamil pun saya lebih berkonsentrasi pada studi saya karena saya tidak mau menunda kelulusan. Satu-satunya yang menjadi pegangan adalah buku tentang kehamilan dan melahirkan yang dikirim oleh suami saya. Saya juga berdoa tiap malam agar semua berjalan lancar. Puji Tuhan karena doa saya didengar. Saya melahirkan dengan normal tanpa ada komplikasi, tanpa C-section, dan saya pun tetap bisa lulus sekolah tepat waktu dengan nilai yang sangat memuaskan. Tiada saat yang lebih membahagiakan daripada saat saya menggendong bayi saya dan menyusuinya untuk pertama kali selepas dia dilahirkan.

Berdasarkan pengalaman tersebut, ketika Meidya Derni dan We R Mommies Indonesia menerbitkan buku ebook/audiobook yg berjudul “Happy Melahirkan”, dengan senang hati saya menjadi reseller karena ebook/audiobook ini berisi segala informasi komplit yang dibutuhkan oleh semua ibu yang hendak melahirkan, meliputi persiapan sebelum melahirkan (dari pertimbangan memilih tempat kelahiran dan ahli yang akan membantu kelahiran, bagaimana kalau posisi bayi sungsang, atau bayi lahir premature, sampai metode-metode melahirkan yang dapat mengurangi rasa sakit saat melahirkan) dan sesudah melahirkan (pemberian ASI, babyblues, perawatan selama 40 hari setelah melahirkan), termasuk juga informasi untuk sang ayah agar dapat berperan aktif dalam membantu mempersiapkan kelahiran si bayi yang sudah dinanti-nantikan.

Selain itu, terdapat juga sharing cerita dari mommies anggota We R Mommies Indonesia mengenai pengalaman melahirkan mereka. Komplit sekali kan? Rasanya semua pertanyaan bumil tentang melahirkan akan dapat terjawab oleh informasi yang diberikan di ebook/audiobook ini.  Selain itu, dengan menerbitkan ebook/audiobook ini, We R Mommies Indonesia ingin membantu pemerintah Indonesia dalam rangka menurunkan angka kematian ibu dan bayi saat melahirkan karena apabila si ibu yang akan melahirkan mendapatkan cukup pengetahuan tentang persiapan melahirkan, si ibu akan merasa lebih tenang dan kuat untuk melahirkan. 

Oleh karena itu, jangan sampai mom semua seperti saya saat melahirkan anak pertama. Kalau moms ingin PD saat melahirkan, langsung saja klik disini untuk mendapatkan informasi terlengkap tentang cara pintar persiapan melahirkan ini.

Audiobook Happy Melahirkan dapat didengarkan kapan saja, sambil masak, sambil kerja, sambil tiduran pun bisa mendengarkan. Kan lebih enak kayak dibacain buku cerita. Musik pengantarnya pun sangat menenangkan. Udah gitu si bapak juga bisa ikut mendengarkan kapan saja. Kalau malas mendengarkan dan lebih seneng membaca, buku ini bisa dibaca di computer atau di perangkat mobile lainnya. Tulisannya gede-gede, bahasanya pun tidak terlalu formal  dan kaku. Yakin seneng deh bacanya. Lah saya saja yang tidak sedang hamil pun senang bacanya. Jadi teringat masa-masa menakjubkan itu.

Harganya murah banget kok. Cuman Rp89ribu. Yang lebih asiknya lagi, bukan cuman dapat ebook/audiobook ini, tetapi juga bisa daftar jadi reseller. Lumayan untuk tambahan uang saku. Sang ayah pun boleh loh menjadi reseller. Kalo tertarik, silahkan langsung klik disini atau klik di banner Happy Melahirkan di halaman ini.


Kalau mau nanya-nanya, silahkan kirimkan pertanyaan anda melalui email atau comment di artikel ini. I’ll be very happy to answer your queries. Silahkan email saya di coffeeliqueur[dot]gmail[dot]com. I look forward to hearing from you all. Saya berharap semua ibu-ibu Indonesia mendapatkan pengalaman melahirkan yang paling membahagiakan.

God's beautiful gift

Time flies really fast. Last week my daughter has celebrated her 1st birthday. She was very sick though at that time. She had high fever of 41 ⁰ Celsius and rashes all over her body which turned out to be baby measles. She recovered in 3 days. Now she is up and about, one busy little girl.

It seemed only yesterday I just gave birth to her and posted her baby picture here. I even haven't had time to post any stories about her when she was a baby, and now she is growing up to be a cheeky girl. She can walk and talk. She is very girly and very talkative. She shows a very different personality compared to her big brother. I really enjoy taking care of her as much as I enjoy taking care of her brother.
I am very blessed to have her to complete my life. I have a handsome boy and a beautiful little girl. Both are very smart in their own way.

Unlike her big brother who shows interest in books, computer, and Math, my little princess shows more interest in language and all the girly things such as hair clips, dolls, and flowers. She loves to dance and she hums along with the song :)

She is also more independent than the big brother. By 1 year old, she is able to feed herself while her brother is still fed until now he is nearly 5 years old.
She insists on feeding herself with a spoon. Although the number of rice falling down to the floor is more than the ones go into her mouth, she is able to finish 1 whole bowl of rice with chicken soup faster than me! Oh, she loves to eat vegetables and chicken, by the way. She says "Checken!" for chicken :) and she eats vegetables like eating peanuts :) When she is full, she will show it to me by tapping her belly and refuse to be fed anything.

She is able to drink from a cup since she is 1 month old. I trained her to drink the breast milk from a cup whenever I didn't breastfeed her. So she is able to master drinking from the cup at a very young age. Up to present, she is still breastfed. That's the only milk she wants to drink.
My girl was very happy when she was able to drink using a straw just a week before her 1st birthday. She has been practicing since she was 2 months old.

My little girl is also able to brush her teeth by herself. She is very happy to brush her teeth while I brush her brother's teeth. She will happily show you her 8 pearly white teeth when you ask her to smile.

Unlike her brother who is very friendly and laughs easily, my little girl doesn't laugh so easily. She is more careful towards other people other than those who take care of her every day. She is also more careful in doing things such as climbing and playing. She pays attention more on people's facial expression. Oh, she is also a great imitator She will copy actions, words, and also facial expressions from people she think fascinate her. It's like having a Xerox machine

My daughter’s favorite hangout place is...Starbucks! Try asking her where she wants to have dinner. She would quickly answer you with "Starbucks!" then ask her what she wants to eat. She'll reply you "Checken!" and the problem is, Starbucks doesn't sell chicken

When I'm busy teaching her brother to do his homework or to prepare for exam, she will keep herself busy drawing on the floor or do body painting. She will draw all over her body though I have given her papers to draw. When I shower her, I can even find a picture on her head!

My maid loves to do my daughter's hair with many styles and put on cute hair pins on her head. My daughter is also happy to do it because she knows she will look even cuter.

She loves her big brother very much. She calls him "toto" instead of koko (big brother). She kisses him. She hugs him. She grins from ear to ear whenever she sees her brother. She also loves to draw on toto's legs. Her brother loves her very much too. They seldom fight for toys or for attention.

I can go on and on telling you about my daughter. She’s just so amazing. She’s such a lovely and beautiful little girl. Happy 1st birthday my little princess! Mommy never stops praying for you. Thank you God for this beautiful gift in my life.

One day at a time

There is a thin line between life and death, happiness and sadness. One day you are so much alive and extremely happy, the next day you could be terribly sad and dying. As an ordinary human beings, we would never know what will happen in our life because life is full of surprises. Knowing this will teach us to stay 'alert' and always be prepared with what may come next.

My brother and his family are trying to cope with life surprises one day at a time. Just barely 2 months ago, my brother was extremely happy for his beloved wife has finally found a job she had dreamed for so long. This was a very good surprise as many people were losing their jobs in this economic downturn. And then, another great news came along when they found out that she was 10 weeks pregnant with their 3rd child. Everything was fine. They rejoiced God's gracious gifts for them everyday.

But then, just less than a week ago, their happy moment was cut short. My sis-in-law was admitted to the emergency room in Panti Rapih hospital for a very high fever. They suspected dengue caused the high fever because my sis-in-law developed rashes on her body. The blood test came out to confirm their suspicion. For 4 nights my sis-in-law had a high fever of 40⁰C.
Her ob/gyn was very concerned about the development of the fetus inside her womb. The scan result showed that the fetus' growth was disturbed by this virus. The fetus didn't grow properly. The mother was trying her best to cope with all symptoms of dengue fever.

On the 5th day, her body temperature was normal. Her blood pressure was also normal. But then, she started to bleed everywhere because her thrombocyte count was very low. When the ob/gyn did the scan to see the fetus, they found out that the fetus has disappeared.
Up to present, she's still under observation in the hospital. I've been asking my brother to provide her with guava juice and guava leaves juice to help increasing her thrombocyte count.

I'm so far away from her and all I can do is praying and I would be grateful if you could pray with me for my sis-in-law's recovery.
Please do take good care of yourself and your family and keep your environment free from mosquitoes breeding ground everyday. This is one way of 'staying alert' and 'being prepared' for any life surprises one day at a time.

Important parenting rule

Before I start to write anything about the above, I would like to apologize for 'eloping' quite sometime... :) I rarely get a chance to use the computer now that my little boy knows how to go to his favorite websites and I don't have a lot of time to sit in front of the computer alone to do my work. So now that my babies are asleep, I want to use this time to write at least 1 post.

For the past 2 weeks, I have been in a mission of trying my best to become a good person. I am also trying my best to be patient and to control my emotion well. All these because I was very concerned about my sweet little boy who would change to be a little monster just to get my attention. He would scream so loud until he lost his voice when ever he did not get what he wanted or when ever he felt guilty.
I know that I only have myself to blame for what he became... :( I have forgotten the most important parenting rule that CHILDREN LEARN BY EXAMPLE.
I have forgotten that children are just like sponges who absorb everything they hear and see.
So, when I see my son screaming very loudly to get my attention, I actually see myself in doing that. I did raise my voice and scream at him to get him to listen to me when ever he really got into my nerve. Other family members followed what I did when they wanted him to listen to them. So, he got people yelling at him all the time.

I did know that I should not do that because he would do exactly like that to me or to any one. But then it is easier to say than to do. I still did that until one day, at a mall, he screamed at the top of his lung from one end to another because he was feeling guilty and also because he was afraid that his father would scream at him. So, he screamed first until he really lost his voice for a week.
The sound of his screaming pierced my ears and my heart. It 'knocked' my head so hard that I promised myself to STOP screaming and yelling at him immediately. I have to change my attitude if I want my son to change his. It has to start from me and it should start immediately before it is too late.

So, since that day on, I have been trying my best to give good example for my son to learn without any force. He would be able to see that mommy is able to control her emotion, her tone, and her voice because I realize that I could not ask him to control his anger when at the same time I was shouting angrily at him.
I also ask the help from my family members to stop shouting at him and to change their attitude first before they expect him to do the same.

Whenever he starts to raise his voice, I will tell him softly that it is not necessary to raise voice because when he speaks softly, mommy will be able to understand what he says clearly. This does work perfectly. So far things are getting better. My son is my sweet little boy again. I have great time with him.

It is very very important indeed to remember all the time the most important parenting rule: children learn by example.
Every thing starts from me. If I do not want my son to be a monster, then I should not be a monster either.
Thank you God for reminding me before it is too late.

Can I breastfeed?

My 4 years old son loves his little sister very much. He will be very proud every time mommy asks his help to change his baby sister's dirty nappy or get her pillow and bolsters. He even reminds me from time to time if I have changed baby's nappy or not. He'll ask if I have taken baby for a bath. Whenever his baby sister cries, he'll run and try his best to talk to her and comfort her by gently pat her hand and caressing her hair while saying, "Don't cry, baby! It's ok. Mommy will come soon. Don't worry!"

He also never fails to notice that every time his baby sister cries, mommy will pick her up and breastfeed her. As he is one curious boy, he always comes up to me and throws me with so many questions about why baby drinks milk from mommy's breasts.

One day, he saw his grandfather carrying his baby sister and the baby was crying. He asked his grandfather to breastfeed baby quickly. I told him that grandpa can't breastfeed baby and he asked me why because he saw that grandpa has big breasts just like mommy's... :D I had to explain to him why grandpa can't breastfeed the baby but apparently, my explanation was not enough because on a different day, I saw him running and quickly opening up his t-shirt and wanted to breastfeed his baby sister when he heard his sister cried. I couldn't help laughing and I quickly tried my best to explain to him that he wouldn't be able to breastfeed the baby because he is a boy just like his grandpa. I told him that only mommy can breastfeed the baby. He argued that he also has breasts same like mommy. I told him that his breasts can't produce milk like mommy's breasts. Then he asked me to quickly fill the milk to his breasts so that his breasts can have milk to give to baby. Wha..ha..ha... :D

He was so determined to breastfeed his baby sister. He thinks every one can breastfeed the baby including him. I asked him why he wanted to breastfeed. He told me that he loves his baby sister and wanted her to stop crying. He also wanted to see his baby sister to grow bigger just like him because mommy also gave breast milk to him last time when he was small (I successfully breastfed my son for 15 months). He remembered what I told him... :)

Even my son knows that breast milk is the best for his baby sister. If he can, he would love to give his baby sister the best food/drink in the world. I hope you do know it too. Give the best for your baby! Breast milk it is. It's free. It's convenient and very portable. It's readily available anytime with the right temperature, and no chemical added. So, you don't have to worry about contamination or tainted milk.

I've been breastfeeding my 2nd baby for nearly 2 months now and I hope to continue as long as she wants. The result so far is this:









Note: I'm very happy to know that many of the people I know have chosen to breastfeed their babies. So far my campaign of breastfeeding is showing positive effects.

Got the blues?

Yes, I did get the baby blues 4 years ago after I gave birth to my 1st child. I got it from the 2nd day after my son was born up to a week afterward. I got so frustrated, irritated, exhausted, and felt sad most of the time. I even cried every night for a week. Thank God I had such wonderful midwife and friends who were willing to go extra miles to save me from going into deep depression, and of course, the Plunket nurses were always available to pick up my midnight calls and talked to me about anything just to make me feel better.

Oh well, who wouldn't get baby blues if you were in my situation at that time. I was in my final year facing my last final examination when I had to give birth just a day before my final exam. I was a first time mother, knew nothing about motherhood and breastfeeding, all alone in a foreign land thousand miles away from my husband and family, haven't had a good night sleep for weeks because I studied hard to prepare for my final exam and never expected that the baby would come 2 weeks earlier. On top of that, I had to pack and to prepare all by myself to go back to Malaysia for good. I really had no time to rest physically and mentally. I never knew that having a baby was such a stressful experience not only because I had no experience at all, but also because of the hormonal upheaval that occurred in my body.

The blues hit me so hard it made me cried every night and felt so helpless and lonely. I felt sad all the time I found myself begging my newborn to give me a chance to rest and to sleep. I needed someone to talk to but not easy to find someone available and who was willing to listen to my woes. Even the people very close to me just couldn't understand why I cried all the time when I should be happy with the presence of my baby. Not everyone can understand about the baby blues especially if you never give birth before. They may think that it is just an excuse for first time mother especially, to cover up her inability to take care her newborn. So, instead of getting support that she needs it the most, she gets more difficult challenges to deal with these people who don't understand what she is going through. She'll feel even down and she can go into deep depression.

I read an article about baby blues written by DR Nor Ashikin Mokhtar in the Star newspaper. You can read the full article here: http://thestar.com.my/health/story.asp?file=/2008/9/21/health/2043971&sec=health
Do read the full article, especially for those who never give birth because it contains very good information on emotional reactions after giving birth.

According to the article, there are 3 types of emotional reactions to childbirth:

1. Postpartum Blues or Baby blues
2. Postnatal Depression
3. Puerperal Psychosis (the most serious postpartum emotional condition)
   

It is very important for mother who suffers from any of these emotional reactions to get full support emotionally and physically from her support persons, her family, and her friends.

Since I have experienced baby blues before, during my 2nd pregnancy my ob/gyn and his staff had to monitor my mental state throughout the pregnancy until after I gave birth to my 2nd child. They had to make sure that I had enough rest and they also informed my support person (my husband in this case) about the blues and asked him to give his full support so that I wouldn't get postnatal depression or even worst the puerperal psychosis.

So, my husband did anything he could to support me until I gave a green light for him to leave me when his duty called. I felt so much better on my 2nd childbirth because I already know what to do and what to expect when my baby is born. I've learned many tricks to handle my newborn as well. I don't think I experience baby blues this time but unfortunately, there is another type of blues I experience though; it's the maid blues, which is caused by...you know who...Gosh!! She's been nothing but trouble to me... : (

Too many questions

My son is coming to 4 years old and he is entering the age when he knows he can use how, why, what, where, who, whose, and when to ask questions to every one to feed his curiosity. He will ask questions about anything to the very detail until you really have no idea how to answer him and wish that he stops questioning you. His questions can be very ridiculous or sounds weird and funny. For example, he asked me "Why today is raining?", "Why am I a boy and aunt Hanna is a girl?", "Why baby is inside mommy's tummy?", "How can baby go inside mommy's tummy?", "Why the train track is very long?". When I gave him the answer, he would continue his interrogations until I run out of answer.

Some people who have no patient will just keep quiet, don't bother to answer him and let him repeating the same question again and again. But my husband and I will try our best to answer every question he poses to us as tactful and careful as possible. There are times that we really gag because we need to think the best and the most appropriate words to explain to him so that at one point he will be satisfied and end his interrogations with "Oh I see." When he says that, we know he is satisfied and will stop questioning us for a moment before the next questions come up again about a different topic. We try to feed him with information as correct and accurate as possible because we don't want him to get the wrong understanding over things he asks. We will also refer him to his encyclopedia books, his children dictionary, or the information from TV shows to give him visual information so he can digest it easily.

It's not easy really. It's very frustrating sometimes because we just can't do anything when he starts to bug us with his questions. He will chase us and corner us until we give him answers that satisfy him. His teacher also informed me about this. At school, my son will ask his teacher so many questions about things he is interested in but when he is not interested in the subject, he will just sleep in the classroom...:)

The only time my son will stop asking questions is when he is busy doing his art work such as painting, coloring, and drawing, and when he is playing with his computer. He will be very silent and concentrate fully on his work. Even when he sleeps he will still ask questions! My husband and I have to wake up and answer his questions until he is satisfied with our answers and he'll go back to sleep.

Geez... he is like a computer that is hungry for some data. He takes all the answers, stores in his brain to be retrieved whenever he needs the data. If it's not enough, he'll try to get more input from any sources... :D

My husband and I can't wait until he can read so that we can guide him to get the answers from many sources not only from books and TV channels (TVIQ, Discovery, National Geography, Animal Planet, and The History Channel) but also from the internet.

In the mean time, we are quite happy to read things for him and try our best to feed his curiosity with the best knowledge possible.
This reminds me of my favourite McDonald commercial I saw in New Zealand years ago. The ad showed a little girl was having a conversation with his daddy and asked him where baby came from. Her daddy gagged for a while because he was a bit reluctant to answer her so he came out with "McDonald!" and the little girl was happy to talk about what to order and end her sentence with, "then you will tell me all about it." Which means she would still require her daddy to answer her first question "Where baby comes from?"...:D

Potty training

My 3.8 years old son has just completed his potty training project. Now he is completely free of diaper, day and night. Yeah..I know..I know...it's a bit late but I am very satisfied with the process and the result. Basically, my son has already passed his potty training project for no-diaper during the day long time ago when he was only 2.5 years old. So, the potty training project this time was only for the night.

Only about 2 weeks ago, I finally got a green light from my husband to potty-train my son for no-diaper at night though I've been quietly training him as and when my hubby was not around but no good progress because my son knew he could still wear diaper when daddy was around.
My husband was very concerned about my son's lack of sleep if he had to be waken up in the middle of the night to pass urine and worried about me not having enough sleep if I had to wake up my son. But I believe, he was just very lazy to wake himself up to help my son to go to toilet at night and he didn't like our maid to put on her long face when she had to do more cleaning and washing of bedsheet, etc.,so my hubby requested me to keep my son diaper on longer.

So, after some jokes about my son not being able to let go his diaper until his teenage time, my husband finally opened up his eyes and agreed to help me to wake my son up and even to carry him to toilet every night to pass urine.

The project didn't go well for the first 1 week and of course, my maid really didn't like this project because she had to wash not only our bedsheet but also the blanket and pillow covers (though we put mattress protector, my son just couldn't sleep on 1 place), but she had no more supporter anymore since my hubby was on my side..wha..ha!
After the 1st week when my hubby was not around, I had to do the job of waking my son up and drag him to toilet (I'm pregnant so it's imposible to lift him up). Everynight before he sleeps I keep on telling and whispering to my son's ears not to pee on the bed. Miraculously, up to present, he nevers fails to wake up by himself and wake me up instead to help him to go to toilet.

Wha..ha..ha..I'm so happy that my son and I completed the project successfully only within 2 weeks. I thought it would take longer. This is great because then I don't have to buy more diaper for him. The cost can be allocated for his baby sister later.

Sharing important knowledge

Some of the information below I received when I attended an ante-natal class.

1. Breast milk is the best: I was successfully breastfed my son for 15 months and I can't stress enough how important it is to give your babies, from newborn - 6 months old, only breast milk (exclusive breastfeeding) because breast milk is the only thing that their tiny stomach can digest. Breast milk also provides complete nutritions for your babies to grow while helping all the internal organs to mature and can function properly. It's cheap and convenient. It protects your babies against infection and allergy. You will see that the rest of the information I give below will always referred back to breast milk as no. 1 solution. It is also important to know the correct way to breastfeed your baby, again I stress the word, breastfeed. Not nipplefeed. Make sure baby is latched on properly to the breast so that mother doesn't feel the pain on the nipple during breastfeeding. Many women do not want to breastfeed because they can't stand the pain.
   Visit La Leche League website for more info about breastfeeding or ask guidance from other breastfeeding moms.
2. Breastfeeding moms must be relaxed and happy to help increasing the milk production. For more information about how breast milk is produce, read here: http://www.babies.sutterhealth.org/breastfeeding/bf_production.html
3. Breast milk produces at night so breastfeeding mothers have to breastfeed their babies at night so that the breasts will not be too full. Full breasts are very uncomfortable and painful.
4. Do not put breast milk in a glass because breast milk can loose its important nutrition when it's put in a glass. Use a plastic cup/container instead.
5. No water for newborn to 6 months old babies. Only breastmilk (or only if mother can't produce breast milk, then give formula): According to the latest news I read from Reuters, giving too much water to babies below 6 months old and younger can put babies at risk of a potentially life-threatening condition known as water intoxication because their kidneys are not yet mature. Too much water will make babies' bodies to release sodium along with excess water and losing sodium can affect brain activity.
   You can read the rest of the article here: http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSCOL76777020080527
   
6. When your baby has jaundice (yellow skin): Jaundice is caused by the excessive amount of bilirubin in the blood. It is dangerous when bilirubin level is more than 15 mg. The treatment: Blue light - to help to bring down the level of bilirubin faster, give breast milk NOT water because bilirubin will come out together with the stool not with urine. Water will come out as urine which won't contain the bilirubin. So, beware when someone asks you to give more water to your jaundice baby. Read more about jaundice here: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001559.htm#
   
7. When your baby has wind/colic: No traditional herbs for breastfeed moms. Breastfeed more. Do not apply oil/ointment on the stomach because it can caused liver damage (some mothers like to apply oil/ointment such as minyak telon/minyak kayu putih (Cajaput oil) to baby's stomach every time after bath. This is dangerous because after a warm bath, baby's skin can absorb the oil/ointment very well.
   
8. Nappy rash on baby: Change the nappy frequently. Even if you buy the most expensive nappy, you still have to change it frequently because you do not want the urine to stain your baby's skin that can cause the rash.
9. When your baby has eye discharge: The treatment for eye discharge: antibiotic eye ointment or drops, frequent cleaning of the eyes carefully and gently, massage the tear duct which may be blocked.
10. When your baby has heat rash (red rashes on the skin): Do not over-cloth the baby. Bath the baby more to cool down.
    
11. No pacifier: I don't recommend to give pacifier to your babies because: it's unhygienic (your baby can get oral thrush - fungal overgrowth in baby's mouth). Pacifier can cause nipple confusion on breastfed babies, and it's dangerous when it's accidentally swallowed (baby will die because of choking).
12. Sleeping position for babies: Back is the best. Lie on the back to sleep. Never leave your baby sleep on the tummy. It's a common cause of SID (sudden infant death/cot death).
13. Always strap in your babies (children) in the right car seat for them when traveling: the baby car seat must be properly and securely installed at the rear (back) seat of the car. Do not install baby car seat in the front seat and the passenger side with airbag when your car is equipped with airbag. Visit this website for more information: http://www.edmunds.com/advice/womenfamilies/articles/104581/article.html
14. Get as much as information you can and always check with your paediatrician/other specialists before you do anything dangerous to your children.

Love and protect your children. Unconditional love is the most important thing you can give to your children because it will teach them how to love others unconditionally as well.

These are all important information I can think of to share with you for the moment. I hope this basic information can help you to become more knowledgeable and wise parents.

Ante-natal class

I'm so glad I finally managed to drag my husband to attend ante-natal class. He missed the 1st one 4 years ago because of his work commitment and distance that kept us apart.

To me, attending an ante-natal class is a very important part of pregnancy period. Although I have attended before, I chose to attend again on my 2nd pregnancy because I believe the knowledge that I received is very valuable to prepare me and my support person to care for our newborn later. Besides, I needed to know any updated information regarding babies/children immunization, sicknesses and how to prevent them, and also great information on what to do/give and not to do/give to babies.

My 1st ante-natal class was provided by Birthcare (great postnatal hospital) in New Zealand. It was a free (fully subsidized by government) 3-day class from morning 'till afternoon. I was given 2 books containing the course material, one book for the father and one book for the mother. The 3-day class was very elaborate and the information given was great especially for 1st time mother like me who had to care for the 1st born by herself. I learned all about to go through my pregnancy, the birthing methods available, the painkiller options during labor, equipment used during delivery, tips on easy-quick delivery, the importance of breastfeeding, how to breastfeed correctly, and parenting education. Too bad my husband couldn't join me, so for 2 sessions my partner was an empty chair then on the final session, one of my good friends agreed to become my temporary birthing partner.

My 2nd ante-natal class was in Malaysia. It's provided by the hospital in where I am going to give birth later.
It was a half a day class. The fee was RM20 per couple in exchange of buffet lunch and all important things to bring to hospital for delivery. The speakers for this ante-natal course consisted of a paediatrician, an obstetrician and gynecology, a nurse, an anaesthetist, and a physiotherapist. I learned a lot of new things in this class especially things regarding breastfeeding, babies, and parenting in Malaysia in addition to the same knowledge I received on my previous ante-natal class in New Zealand.
My husband and I agreed that joining this class really gave us more knowledge about taking care our children. We learned many things that most people take for granted thinking that they already know when actually they know the wrong things.
It's great that my husband was there with me listening to the same information so that when we face a problem concerning our children, we will react the same way and not blaming one another instead. This is a very important point to highlight why it is very important for me to take my support person to attend an ante-natal class.

If you are pregnant, I really suggest you attend an ante-natal class with your support person (your husband, your mother, your mother in-law) so that every one will get the same knowledge and you, as a mother who only wants the best for your children, will not be blamed for doing things that consider new to your support persons. Your mother/mother in-law always think that they know everything better than you do because they are experience mothers, but if they never update their motherhood knowledge, then they will teach you all the wrong things (old information) which can be dangerous for your children. The knowledge you receive during ante-natal course will act as your mythbusters so you know for sure what to do/give to your children.

By attending ante-natal class, you and your support person will be more prepared and relax to welcome the wonderful addition in your family.

The sweetest thing

Last night, after came back from the hospital (previous post), again, I had a big argument with my other half in the kitchen. My 3.5 year old son heard it and run to the kitchen to see us. He saw me crying and asked me, "Why are you crying, mommy?" I told him nothing happened. Mommy was just a little bit sad. Then he came up closer to me and tapped my leg and said, "It's ok, mommy. Don't cry! Don't be sad!" He took my hand and asked me to sit down. I sat down (while still sobbing).

Then my son came up to me again with his red ball, gave it to me and said, "Here my ball, mommy. I give this ball for you. Don't cry anymore. Don't be sad, ok?" Then he took his cookies and gave it to me while saying, "Here my cookies, mommy. You can have them all. I give my cookies all for you. Don't cry, ok?" While sobbing, I really couldn't stop smiling. My son saw it and said, "Mommy is smiling. Mommy is not crying anymore. Mommy is happy again because I gave everything for mommy." Then he asked me again, "Why are you sad, mommy?" I tried to put myself together and answered him, "Looks like daddy forgot how to love mommy." Then I heard my little boy said, "Daddy, daddy, you have to love mommy. Come here! Come here! I show you how to love mommy. See..like this (while hugging me and kissing me)." Then he continued, "Now you do, daddy! You hug mommy and you kiss mommy." His daddy did what he said. Then my boy said, "Like that, daddy. Like that. You love mommy. Good daddy!"

This time, I really put on a big smile on my face. My son looked extremely happy to be able to make me smile again. He thought his mission is accomplished and he returned to watch his shows on tele.
My son is the definitely the best medicine for my great depression. This little man is the sweetest person I know and I'm so glad I'm his mother.

Walk slowly, mommy!!

Yesterday morning I fell down in front of the lift of my apartment. I twisted my ankle and bumped my right shoulder on the floor. I didn't remember how exactly that happened. It happened very fast. I was talking to my husband while walking towards the lift. I didn't notice there were puddles on the floor. Suddenly I was already on the floor and feeling a tremendous pain on my left leg. I laid still on the floor, didn't dare to move a muscle. I was in shock. The first thing came to my mind was the baby in my womb. "My baby. I hope my baby is ok." I kept on repeating that sentence. My husband was in shock too. He tried to help me to get up again. He kept on asking me if I was ok or not.

When I finally managed to get up again, I couldn't say a word. I was still too numb to speak and worried so much about my baby. I quickly checked if I was bleeding or not. There was not any blood coming out of my body. Fuih!! Thank you, God! I knew I couldn't blame anyone. It was my fault. I was not careful enough; but according to my husband, my slippers were to blame. He kept on blaming me for wearing the slippers because the slippers didn't have a good grip anymore. Never mind my slippers, it was all my fault for not paying attention while walking. I just prayed hard so that the baby was not affected at all.

The whole day all I could do was laying down on the bed feeling the pain all over my body. I sprained my left ankle. My right shoulder and my right hip got blue black bruises. I hope I fell down on my side so that my baby bump was untouched.

I couldn't come down to pick up my son when he returned from school. When he saw me laying down on the bed, he asked me, "What happened with you, mommy?" I told him I fell down and sprained my ankle. With his serious face while holding my hands, he said to me, "That's why you have to walk slowly, mommy. If you walked slowly, you will not fall down anymore."
Wha..ha..ha..I tried my best to hide my smile and put on my sad face and said, "Oh yes, darling. Thank you for your advice. I'll walk slowly next time, ok?" Then I saw him smiling at me. Oh my boy! He's just the best thing that ever happened to me. I pray so that the second baby will be as brilliant as the big brother.

First day at school

Yesterday was a very important day for both my son and me because yesterday was his first day at school. Though it's only a pre-school, both of us were overwhelmed by the fact that my son has just reached another important milestone in his life. I got more excited than any one else including my son. It doesn't sink in his brain yet that when he goes to school, his world is not just mommy, daddy, and his nanny. He needs to learn to interact with his new friends and his teachers. He needs to learn to be independent. It is important that he develops his social skill as well.

On Sunday, we went for shopping to buy more pants and cloths for my boy because he doesn't have his uniform yet. I prepared him as much as I could so that he wouldn't be too overwhelmed by the situation and the new things at school. I trained my son to sleep early at night and wake up very early in the morning because usually, he sleeps at midnight and would wake up at 10am. A week before his first day at school, I trained him to learn to sit down and feed himself. Normally, he wouldn't stand to sit down for more than 5 minutes and it took about at least an hour to feed him. He needs to be able to sit down and feed himself because I was afraid that my son would walk around while his friends enjoy their meal. My son is learning very slowly about this. I don't get much support from others who stay with us because every one wants to teach my son his/her own way and my son knows that there will always be someone that is willing to feed him. D'oh I am really frustrated about this but I can't be too hard on him or he will be frustrated too and he will refuse to eat.

So the 1st day at school came.

My husband and I couldn't sleep because we were afraid of waking up too late and I could feel that I was very nervous about my son's reaction on his first day at school. I heard from so many people that usually first day at school is a crying day because the kids will not want to be separated from the parents.
I tried to calm myself down and prepared my son to go to school. My son still didn't realize why he had to wake up and get ready so early that day. He thought we were going to church. He was very excited and got ready with no fuss at all.

When I saw him ready to go to school with his small water bottle on his shoulder and his small bag that he dragged here and there, I could not hide my emotion. Oh my boy has grown up so fast. Seems only yesterday I gave birth to him and now he is ready to go to school. I hugged him tightly and kissed him. If only I could paint, I would have painted this moment. I did take many photographs but I don't think the photos really show the emotion I experienced that day.

The first day at school was not only for my son but it was also for me and my husband. We were not too sure what to do the moment we arrived at my son's school.
As for my son, he got so excited to see so many kinds of educational toys around and no one seemed to say "No" to him when he played with all the toys. He jumped from one section to another taking different kinds of toy but one thing that attracted his attention so much was the computer set. He was so happy to see the computer he is very familiar with. He played with the computer and quickly forgot about his mommy and daddy. When every one saw him quite ok with the new situation, the teacher assured us that he would be fine. So, off we went. My son didn't even hear us saying good bye to him. He was so busy playing and discovering his new toys.

Then when we came back to pick him up again after school finished, he run very fast while screaming and crying so loudly the moment he saw us walking towards his classroom. From the teachers we found out that he cried for hours when he realized mommy and daddy were not around anymore. He hugged my husband so tightly and screaming that he didn't want to go back to school anymore. Oh poor my little boy! He got so trauma with the new situation.

For the whole day yesterday, I kept on talking and talking to him, trying to calm him down and convinced him that mommy would not leave him anymore.

Today, I was so afraid that my son refused to go to school at all, but he forgot about the incident yesterday. He woke up early and got ready quickly. He still thought that he was going to church (again)... :)
But then, when the car made a right turn to his school, his trauma came back. He screamed and cried so loudly that he did not want to go to school.
I hugged him and gave him assurance that mommy would always be with him. Mommy would not leave him alone this time.
So, I had to carry him out of the car and comforted him while walking down to his classroom. Then, the moment he saw the toys and the crayons and the computer, he wanted to go down and dragged me around the classroom. He showed me where he played and he showed me what the computer did.
Again, I was so overwhelmed. I could not hide my emotion but I didn't want him to see me crying because then he would think I was sad when in fact I cried because I felt very proud to be his mother. I could not believe I managed to help him to reach this milestone.

On the second day, slowly my son got used to the situation and the surrounding. I slowly retreated to the back of the school joining a group of parents who were waiting for their children.
When the classroom door was closed, I could hear so many children crying, including my son. He forced to open the door and stormed towards me with so much fear in his face. When he saw me, he hugged me tightly and said, "I want mommy! I want my mommy! I only want my mommy!"
I saw many other younger kids crying looking for their mommies. 1 teacher had to comfort 4 crying kids. Oh what a stressful situation!
I tried my best to comfort my son and assure him that I would never leave him alone. But it was not easy to gain his trust back. So, I had to sit down inside the classroom until his teacher took the children out for an outdoor activity.

Most children love the outdoor activity. They stopped crying at once and got busy playing with the sand. My son was so busy playing with the sand he completely forgot about me. For another 2 hours, for the first time, I saw him following his teacher's instruction and not even bother to look for mommy.
Then it was time to go back home, but my son did not want to go back home! After more talking and persuading from me, he said good bye to his teacher and promised to come back again tomorrow. Wow! I could not believe my ears...:D
For the whole day today, he was so proud that he did not cry anymore at school and I use this opportunity to lift up his spirit more so that he won't be afraid to go to school again tomorrow and hopefully, by next week, I don't have to stay at school anymore so that he can learn to be more independent.

Oh what a great experience as a parent!!


1st day at school. Still trying to explore the classroom and the surrounding.






Showing daddy the new toy.






That is my favorite thing, the computer!

Thomas and friends birthday treat

There was no crafted scary looking pumpkin sitting in front of my door for the Halloween but instead, there was a cute innocent looking of Thomas the train face carefully drawn as part of the decorations for my son's birthday cake.

Yes, that's right. My son celebrated his 3rd birthday last month and I had to creatively come up with my own trick to have Thomas and friends birthday treat for him.
It was a last minute change of plan from Kipper the dog theme to Thomas the train theme because my son suddenly felt tired of seeing Kipper all the time.
For the past 2 weeks before the D-day, I had been digging out any information from anyone and of course from the internet, courtesy the lovely mr. know-it-all-Google.com, so that I could print my son's favorite cartoon character on his birthday cake. I really wanted to see his big big smile when he saw the cake for the first time. I racked my brain to mix and match any edible materials to get Thomas' face pasted on the cake. It's frustrating but it was fun to do. I baked the chocolate cake on the night before the big day.
The next day, I woke up at 5am to get Thomas' face ready before I decorated the cake.
Since my family is anti-butter sugar icing, so I decided to use cream cheese instead to frost the cake.

By 8 o'clock the Thomas birthday cake was ready. My husband was very surprised to see the cake. He never knew I could make such a cool cake before. I had to keep the cake in the fridge first before starting to decorate the whole house with all things Thomas and his friends. I made all the decorations by myself including the birthday boy hat.

At 10 o'clock, the birthday boy woke up and got out of the room. He had a very big smile on his face though his eyes were still half opened. He walked towards the dining table. His smile was even bigger now and his eyes were widely open for he was so amazed to see all his beloved cartoon characters, lead by Thomas the train, were displayed on the dining table. He gasped and said, "It's my birthday...today!". He sounded exactly like Jake (when Jake celebrates his birthday), one of his favorite characters in Kipper the dog show. I kissed him and said, "Happy birthday, sweetheart. Yes, it is. Today is your birthday and you turn 3 today."

After he drank his milk, I shoved him to the bathroom to get ready for his birthday party. Not too long, he came out again from the room wearing Thomas and friends T-shirt and pants. I put on his birthday boy hat right away. He looked extremely cute. He looked even cuter when he saw the birthday cake I brought out from the kitchen. He giggled to see his Thomas birthday cake complete with the train miniature and 3 lighted candles.

Once every one was ready, we started the birthday party. Since my son hasn't gone to school yet, he only had his mommy, daddy, his nanny, Kipper the dog and friends, Little Einstein, and of course Thomas and friends to come to his birthday party.
We all sang Happy birthday to him and my son, he just could not wait to blow the candles. He kept on blowing the candles even when we haven't finished singing the birthday song. After blowing his candles for 3 times, he insisted to cut the cake by himself. So, I let him cut the cake.
"Oh no! I cut Thomas, mommy!I cut Thomas!" he screamed. I laughed so loud I could not hide it. I knew he was going to say that. I helped him cutting the cake and gave it to every one. The chocolate cake was sooo delicious. I made the chocolate cake to suit my son's taste. Every one loved the cake.

On that day, my son was not the only one who was over the moon. I was very happy to know that this simple birthday party was a success, especially the Thomas birthday cake.
On that day, my son was not the only one celebrating. Me too, I was celebrating my 3 years of motherhood.
My son is 3 now and he is going to kindergarten soon. Oh how time flies! I still remembered clearly from the first day I conceived him, delivered him, breast-fed him, changed his nappies, carried, rocked, and sang lullaby for him for hours until he slept. He is a little man now who is very talkative, active, and smart. No matter how fast he grows up, to me, he will still be my cute little boy, the magic that God has created in me.

Happy birthday, baby! I love you very much. My prayers are with you always.