I Have A Working Mother...

Since young, I have been telling Ching Ern she has a working mummy. Mummy has to leave her behind to her grandmas until I pick her up again in the evening. She has not been whining all along of having me going away.

Up until the stage where she understand money is needed to pay for things, I started to tell her if I don't work, we can't buy things.

Honestly, I don't know if I have said the right thing to her but looking at the choice (which is none) I have, this is something I have to tell her :-)

So now, she understands the equation of "when mummy goes to work = I have to go to school!". She has yet to know how to calculate days even she knows how to recite Sunday till Saturday. So almost every other day, she will ask me how many more days she needs to go to school! This is because she looks forward for weekend to come because she knows mummy has plan for her!

Tis the Season...

Full of parties, gathering and celebration, we have been taking the kids out attending until the stage my little Princess can ask me this:

Ern: Mummy, tomorrow got school?
Mummy: No, tomorrow is Saturday
Ern: 2 days no school right?
Mummy: Yes! Why?
Ern: Tomorrow we go where party?

I tried to occupy her weekends with activities to do (our bonding time) or I take her for outing. Or I would invite her friends over to do things together.

Fun...fun...fun...what's something I want my kids to enjoy!

PS: Photo was taken during a friend's birthday party where Ern got to decorate her own cup cakes. She was so thrilled!

Cool Off

The forceful way of "cannot do" and "should do" can hardly work on Ern anymore. Well, she has grown up to rationalize things and speak out what she wants. Something I should thank for (I am !) but at the same time, she is also playing the mental game with us! Hmm, or rather I should say testing our patience! ha!

We are in the stage of using 'reverse psychology" with Ern now. Instead of telling her "cannot do" and bla bla bla, we will tell her scenarios of 'what if" and "to be". Then, we (the adults) will walk away, leaving a stubborn girl a cool off to think through.

After a good 5mins, she will came to us to apologize or accept what we told her. Then we will repeat why we say so and make sure she really agree. Well, we want her to understand completely the reasons behind so that she can leart!

Parenting! *sweat*

Bird???

Ern claimed she is drawing a bird. My friend said it looks more like a turtle!!! LOL

Weekend Activities

Being a working mother, I tried to catch up the bonding and spend quality time with my kids over the weekend.

Over the past few months, I had done several activities with Ern:

1) Learning to use the kid scissor to cut --> still need more practise on the motor skill



2) Ferry Ride



3) Playing Sand Art - either at home or at the mall



4) Playground



5) Drawing



6) Visiting State Children Library -> she loves the cooking set



7) Post Letter at Post Office



8) Morning walk at Botanical Garden

A little step forward...

For those of you who are on FB with me, I guess this post is nothing new to you. :-)

2 months back (Sept 23rd to be exact), I pushed Ern to buy her own chocolate sundae at McD. She rejected ( I should say she was afraid) the idea of placing the order herself. So I placed the order (via the drive through) just for other family members except her order before we drove home. She was blank, I can tell. However, she didn't whine but she knew I was unhappy.

The moment she got home and saw MIL, she broke down and cried. Manja!! I told MIL I have received feedback from Ern's teacher she is lack of confident in class. We need to 'do something' to help her to overcome. So, MIL stayed at my side *grin*

The whole crying drama lasted for 1 hour no matter how we (MIL and I) coaxed her. I even did a role play how the situation would be at McD and tell her how she can place the order. She 'participated" in the role play well, still with tears in her eyes & sobbing. LOL

In the end, I told her if she is brave enough to place the Chocolate Sundae herself, I will get her the Happy Meal that comes with a Power Puff Girl toy (She saw it when we were there earlier). She buy the idea and agreed to go back again. She decided just to get the Happy Meal and not the chocolate sundae. Well, she just wanted the toy!

I drove her back to McD again. I wanted her to order from the counter but it was raining heavily. So I have to settle with the drive through machine again.

While waiting for our q, Ern even said to me this (in Mandarin): " Mummy, we have to be polite, right? So we have to say "Please" and "May I"!!"

This was the conversation when it was our turn to place the order:
Ern: Please, May I have 1 Happy Meal?
Cashier: Ok. Anything else?
ERn: Please, May I have 1 pink Power Puff Girl?

I tell you, at that moment, I had a mixed feeling - Proud and funny!
Proud because I managed to push her step forward to do something...funny because I couldn't stop laughing on how she spoke and placed the order!!

Anyway, from that day onwards, we can see a leap jump on Ern's courage to do more things on her own.

Btw, she dare not play the slide that comes with a cover (Sorry, don't know what's this call), fear that she get stuck half way and we can't see and rescue her. 2 weeks back, she did it without me telling her to try.

Bravo Ching Ern. Mummy is proud of you!