Sleep mummy sleep

I was in deep sleep when I heard Kah Yen crying suddenly from her baby cot, in the middle of the night. It must be a nightmare again. I quickly got up and walked to her. I hugged her and gave her some water to sooth her down then put her down to bed again.

I thought I could get back to my bed like usual days when she wakes up for water and goes back to sleep on her own. But today no, she cried at my first attempt to leave her. The nightmare must have scared her. Sigh... Looks like I had no choice but to pat her to sleep.

I stood by her cot, patted her back while singing softly a lullaby. It must be 2 or 3am. I was extremly sleepy myself and could hardly keep my eyes open. The singing soon became humming and it slowly faded. The room was both dark and quiet. I continued to pat her while testing if she had fallen asleep. You know the test every mother knows how to do? You pat and then stroke and then lighter and slower and then you try to leave your hand up in the air, and you start counting 123. When you count to 10 there is still no movement from the baby, she is aleep. If the moment your hand stops in middle air she tosses, you need to pat a few minutes longer to test again. The worst is when your hand stops she turns to your direction and opens her eyes to look at you, she is not even near to falling asleep yet, you can forget about going back to sleep in the next half an hour. In fact if there a coffee machine nearby you might as well get a cup to stand by. I tried a few times and everytime she moved when I stopped, so I continue patting.

About 20 minutes later she finally went back to sleep. I counted from 1 to 10 and back to 1 again and there was not a single sound from her. Relived, I climbed back to my own bed and snuggled under my warm blanket. I didn't want to check what was the time. You sleep a whole lot better when you pretend you still have a long night before you.

However, I barely lay down for more than a minute when I heard some movement and murmur from her bed again. And her voice soon travelled to my ear, "drink water, mummy, drink water". Sigh...Didn't I get give her water when I put her down? Why didn't she drink a bit more? I thought she had already fallen asleep? When I think of having to pat her for another half an hour again, I was very reluctant to get up. And I thought of the alarm clock silently waiting to greet me good morning at 630am. I was almost sure I won't be able to get up on time and I will be late for work again....With such a heavy heart I dragged my body off my bed and went to pass her the water bottle.

What happened next was totally surprising, but it was surely sweet. And it is the reason why I take such length to write this article. My 22-month-old girl, after drinking her water and passing back to me the bottle, pointed at my bed and said "Mummy sleep". With that, she lied down on her bed and turned her back towards me, comfortably and contentedly.

Ah this little girl, she surely knows how to warm my heart. How she learnt to be so sensible? I certainly have not taught her to be so. Maybe it is just a once-off thing, but at that moment, I felt such a privilege and honor to be a mum.

Chasing birds and laughters

I don't know exactly what to write, I just got the pictures. Look how happy Kah Yen and Daddy are just by, doing nothing but chasing after the birds. We were on our way to the market on a Saturday morning, passing by this field with a lot of birds. Kah Yen was excited as usual and wouldn't go away. Daddy decided to have some fun with Kah Yen by chasing after the birds together.

What a big smile there is on her face! If you are there, you won't miss her laughter too. It is no wonder Daddy said Kah Yen's laughter is the sweetest voice he has ever heard.

And Kah Yen is always very generous sharing with Daddy her smile and laughter. For with Daddy, there are more spontaneity, more running-around and more playful moments.

One thing at a time

I have mentioned more than a few times that I am not an artistic person. I don't draw, or paint or make handicrafts. I am not just being humble. I really don't know. I did not have the chance to learn any of these when I grew up.

But, I guess motherhood is about learning new things, ALWAYS and NON-STOP. So I try to learn and do some art & craft activities with Kah Yen. Not because I have the ambition of raising a great artist, or so that she can get more extra-curriculum points when she goes to school, No, I don't have any of these in my mind. It is simply because it is a fun and easy activity to do with toddlers, also a good time for bonding, and for training their fine motor skills and attention span.

So last Saturday we made a duck together, with a bit of drawing, cutting, coloring and pasting. I downloaded the black & white craft template from First School - Alphabet Worksheets and Activities, I cut out two egg shapes (small and big) for the head and main body, two identical heart shapes (in oval rather than round shape) for the wings, two identical stars for the feet, and a rounded rectangle for the mouth. Together we colored all of them in either yellow or blue, with me doing 90% of it. I then asked Kah Yen to help me apply glue to all the pieces, she was very enthusiastic and did most of it herself, except I have to keep telling her to apply on the correct side. As you can see from the below photo, she was applying glue on the color side instead.

We then pasted the different shapes on her notebook according to the picture sample, the interesting part was the mouth, which we need to glue half and fold half to create the 3D effect.

The craft was done in less than 30 minutes. It was really a simple idea but I enjoyed the time we spent together and I hope we will be able to do more in the future. This is nothing as compared to what Daddy did with Kah Yen, but, Mummy is learning, one thing at a time.

Kah Yen's first children's day celebration

Yesterday Kah Yen celebrated Children's day for the first time at sunday school. It was exciting and fun but overwhelming as well due to the big crowd, I am proud that Kah Yen did very well through the entire two hours of celebration.

Firstly all the children were invited to join the adults for worship. I so wanted Kah Yen to participate in the worship I brought her all the way to the front row so that we can jump and dance around freely. (Yeah I sometimes do that, guess it says I am still young at heart) We both had a great time singing and dancing together with other children. 

After the worship all the 2-4 years old were led to a different room for children's day program. Usually Kah Yen's class consists of only 10-15 children between 18 months to 2-year old. Today with the addition of 3-4 years old, the total class size was more than 50. It was a massive crowd. Kah Yen was a little overwhelmed initially but she stayed on and behaved well.

Here is all the 2-year old at their first station game - kids bowling. How cute to see they all sitting properly waiting for their turn to throw the ball. And you can see all the parents, teachers and maids cheering behind them, probably even more anxious than the children. LOL. I couldn't squeeze in so I decided to stand aside to take some photos instead.

This is Kah Yen waiting for her turn. You can see the bigger kids were more "aggressive", while Kah Yen and the other girl were at loss what to do. They eventually threw the ball when the teacher guided them to.



After the bowling, they went to the next station - sandbag transportation. This is Kah Yen waiting in the line. I love how she followed instruction to stand in the queue and put her hand on the kid in front till her turn came.

At this station the children were told to carry the sandbag on their heads and walk to the line in front and back. I thought they are too young to play this game, but I was wrong. All the 2-year old were able to follow the instruction and transport the sandbags. Of course being 2-year old they were allowed to "cheat" by using their hands to support the sandbag to prevent it from falling. Kah Yen held the sandbag firmly on her head with both hands and finished the walk. I love how serious she looked, too bad I didn't get a photo.

After all the games Kah Yen received two goodie bags of candies and also a coupon for candy floss, she is too young to eat candy floss so Daddy and Mommy finished it on her behalf.

I can't help thinking how fast she has grown. She was still a tiny baby last year now she is celebrating children's day. I am proud of her for being such a well-behaved big girl. There will be many more children's day celebrations to come in the years ahead and I look forward to each and every one of them.