After talking about raising the second child, let’s talk about motherhood. I found that being a mother have improved a lot of my skills and brain power, which makes me smarter than before I became a mother.

Problem Solver – All mothers are good problem solver. Hey your child didn’t come with an operating manual. When he/she cries, you do not have any reference books to tell you what went wrong. However we were given a maternal instinct to detect it. Have you ever heard a saying, “Before a child asked for things, a mother already knows what he wants.” Chinese saying “Kat hey til mei, ngor the ji lei yu mud” (in Cantonese).

Networking – Hey mothers are good in finding other mothers with the same problem and discuss a solution. Many mothers today are well verse with the Internet. Some who has no IT background but could pick up blogging, chat and make full use of parenting forums. How cool is tat?

Creativity – I am not sure about you but I use my creativity to deal with a child or discipline them. When your child is rude or does things that are not right, what do you do? You could cane them? That is one option but not necessary the best or give the best result. It may not even be suitable method for certain types of children. For me, my hubby makes this song up. It goes like this “Shame Shame, all the monkeys know your name”. Every time my children do something rude, I sing that. They laugh and know that it is not a right thing to do because they do not want monkeys to know them. :giggles: Anyway, this only works for children below 5. As they grow other, I have to be creative about the methods I used to discipline them.

Resourceful – I read up a lot about pregnancy, breastfeeding parenthood, children behavior and anything about children. I bet most of you also find out vaccinations and diseases related to children like chicken pox, measles, UTI, etc. I may not be an expert but enough to know how to deal with it.

Multitasking – I do this most of the time especially when they were a baby. I have to carry them to pacify them while using another hand to make milk or express my milk, and talk to them at the same time. Today, I need to use this skill to handle 2 requests at the same time as I have 2 demanding children and a hubby.

Read more about this in this article: How motherhood makes you smarter.

I found that raising the second child is always the easiest than the first one. For those who have 1, faster sign up for the piggy’s club. You still have time.

Anyway, here is what I found.

Speech – Emily picked up speech faster than Tim. As she always converse with Tim. She also picked up the fierceness from me. She makes me look at myself and reduce my fierceness, which is a good thing. Once she picked up her Minnie Mouse Toy.

Emily: Don’t cry ah. No chocolate for you.
Emily: Don’t cry ah. I will beat you. 😯

Dancing – As you know Tim did the dancing for the concert. He did a couple of rehearsals at home, showing Emily how to do it. Once Tim sang the song and Emily did the dance. It was a great sight to watch them do things together.

Singing – Both likes to sing a lot. They learn songs from Sunday school and their nursery. Emily knows how to count and her alphabets too.

Competition – Last time Tim was having trouble with his meal or milk drinking. It took forever for him to finish his meal. Now with Emily, they will try to out beat each other to finish their milk or meals.

Potty Trained – Emily does whatever Tim does, so potty training is easy. Of coz, not stand and pee. Both sit on the potty to do their business and pee. Emily is diaperless during the daytime, a few months ago.

Of coz there are the bad when you have 2.

Fights – No one can escape from this. I just have to learn how to deal with it. Usually I will just let them fight, cry and stop. You do not need to stress yourselves, shouting at them, it does not work. They will fight even more. Focus on the child that will be distracted easily and solve the fight. Not easy but it can be done.

Selections – Each have their own selections. It is better not ask what they want, else it will end up with fights. Example, if you ask them what cartoon they want to watch, you are just asking for trouble. Mummy chooses and they watch it.

Oh well, if you are having a tough time raising 1, don’t despair. It is definitely easier with the second one. A lots of things, you will just close 1 eye.

I was going through my recipe books on what to cook for the weekend. I found something I really love to eat. It is the sago honeydew and really easy to make.

Recipe here: http://mybabybay.com/cookblog/?p=68

Yummy!

Later in the evening, I took my children to watch “Happy Feet”. I find that the show was not really suitable for my children. Too deep for them. Not much action, but a whole lot of penguins. After dinner we had a delicious ant dessert. See the before and after shot.

Night time conversation.

Emily: Emily sleep, clever or not.
Mummy: Emily is a clever boy. *purposely*
Emily: No, Emily is a clever gal. Emily is a gal, not boy.
Mummy: Yeah, yeah, Emily is a clever gal. :giggles:

Few months ago:

Emily: Mummy
Emily: Mummy *no response from mummy because busy*
Emily: Mummy say “yes dear”
Mummy: Opps, yes dear.
Emily: Mummy *try again to ensure mummy gets it right*
Mummy: Yes dear.

Now:

Emily: Mummy
Mummy: Yes Emily darling
Emily: Emily is honey, not darling
Mummy: Opps, yes Emily honey

Generation have changed, I call my hubby, pa and call my children darling or honey. :sc:

Mummy: Emily please can you put your bowl in the sink.
Emily: Mummy see *clenching both of her fist* no hands.
Mummy: Ok, no hand for candy too.
Emily: *immediately bring the bowl to the sink*

Mummy 1 Emily 0 :giggles:

How can I forget Timothy. Here is a little on him. I have always been teaching the children to say please and thank q.

Mummy: Tim, please could you get me a tissue from the table.
Tim: *grab a tissue for mummy*
Mummy: *took the tissue and kept eating dinner*
Tim: Mummy, you must say thank q
Mummy: Opps, thank q Timothy, you such a clever boy. :giggles:

First time Tim had to perform on stage, not just any stage but the stage of Dewan Sri Pinang. It was a big stage, even I have never gone up that stage. He certainly made me proud. He had to perform with his class to about 200 audiences or more. His dance were titled “Barbie Gal”. He didn’t get any stage fright and had fun over it. Children, they just don’t know what nervous means.

After that, we went on a shopping spree at Toysrus. I got a good bonus this year and wanted to get each of them a special toy. Those toys in Toysrus are not cheap and some are over priced. Guess what they picked. Here you go:

Are you a good guy or bad guy in your parenting roles? Once I read that one parent have to be the one disciplining the child and the other is the one who comforts when they get scolded or whack. However, to tell you the truth, my hubby and I are not very good at it. Our children tend to see our soft spot and sometimes out play us. In another words, we are too lenient.

They are afraid of other people like their teachers or grandma, listening to them and following their order, even without canning or scolding. No matter, how lenient we are, we still discipline them either with scolding or light caning (either on the palm or leg) if they go over board. With caning, so far I only have done it once. Now I don’t have to because when they see the cane, they are afraid. And I am not saying that this is the only method for discipline, I do use reward and others.

Sometimes the smart Emily, if she gets scolded by my hubby, she will cried and want mummy. If mummy scolds, she wants daddy. Funny thing is that, especially if one of us is away for business trip, she will want the one who is gone when she cries.

Besides disciplining role, most of the time my hubby and I will put on a cartoon hat. What’s that? We love to act funny to make them laugh. I still think humor or laughter will bind the family together. Hubby does that very well. He will do silly things to make the children laugh. Once, he put the laundry basket with holes over his head and acts like a robot. The children burst out laughing non stop and so does mummy.

I forgot to blog about this. The adorable Belle made me forgot. I was supposed to meet with Vien and d0mesticgoddess at 6:45-7pm at Gurney Hotel. I left my office at 5pm to fetch my children and took a shower. I left the house at 6pm, so I could be there on time or earlier.

I left the house secretly with Tim, hoping that Emily didn’t notice. She didn’t. My hubby asked me to pump petrol because tank is half empty. I thought there will be a Shell petrol station on the way, I will pump there.

I was happily cruising with Tim, listening to music on the radio. I was like half way towards town. I stopped by the Shell. I got out. I was putting my hand on the back pocket. Guess what I forgot? Bingo, no wallet. Darn!!!! :wall:

I still have enough petrol to go down town and back. Do you think I should take the risk of driving to town without myKad (probably get fine 10K) and driving license? If I turn back to pick up my wallet, I will be late, not to mention there may be traffic during the rush hour of people returning home from work. I really wanted to take the risk but Tim was there with me. I had to go back home. I had the handphone with me, called my hubby to get ready my wallet.

I called up d0mesticgoddes to say I am going to be late. I reached the hotel at 7:20pm. Bumma…

6:00 Out of the house
6:30 Petrol station
6:50 Pick up wallet
7:20 At the hotel.

If you do the math, it took me 30 minutes at first to be halfway and it took me 30 minutes later to drive from home to town. I drove real fast but safely of course. :shifty:

Emily: Mummy what is this? Pointing at a pic that looks something like this.

Mummy: Lightning. Are you scared of lightning? It makes a “keboom” loud sound.

Emily: Scare…Scare.

Tim: Lightning does not make any sound, only thunder.

Mummy: That’s correct Tim. :doh: Thunder makes a loud sound.

It must be the DHA in his milk. I probably needs to take some of his milk, else how to keep up with him.

Do you get stress dream? I did and after waking up, it is not a good feeling. I just get mentally and physical tired. I am not stress lately but I don’t understand why I am getting these dreams.

I dreamt that I was late for a trip to Australia for an examination. Yeah examination again, sigh. I cannot find my socks, look around and there were 100 pairs of shoes in front of me (not mine) and socks everywhere. I was trying to locate that which was mine. I found one but the other was lost. As I was rushing, I didn’t care, just grab whatever I have. Upon reaching the parking, in the dream I anticipated that I will go with my car. My hubby was waiting there, he was not angry as he seldom gets angry, but I could see him shaking his head for my lateness.

Then, I went into a rented van not my car. Hubby said, he can return it right after. Oh dreams never make sense, anyway. However when we got into the van, there was no stirring wheel and it looks like the internal driving mechanism was broken. STRESS because of me we are running late. That was when I woke up, felling stress. Sometimes I dream about making a simple phone call for emergency but I kept pressing the wrong numbers, making me dial over and over again.

I hope you don’t feel stress reading this. If yes, sorry…..Opps Monday morning some more. :wall:

Sorry, not in the mood today. Yesterday I heard a bad news from my close blogger friend. I hope she have a speedy recovery. :pray: