The Joys of Motherhood

Image link: Precious Moments "The Greatest Joy Is Motherhood"  

One of the Joys of Motherhood is watching your kids face light up when they receive a happy surprise. Their delight is our delight. I am anticipating such a delight soon.

My boy has been waiting for a parcel because he received a small prize recently, some movie memorabilia. Nothing fantastic but enough to delight a little boy. He has been waiting for 'the special postman' to bring his prize for the past 2 weeks.

I have been brought to the door in vain countless time because he 'heard' the doorbell being rung by his special postman. I think he has finally given up and forgotten about it. Today his 'special postman' came while he was in school. I have put the courier package on his table.

I can't wait to see the delight on his face when he sees it. His face will practically light up with happiness and he will call out to me for sure. That is indeed on of the best joys of motherhood. Can you think of any other?

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Should my Newborn Sleep first and my Toddler later?

"Should my Newborn Sleep first and my Toddler later?"

This is a frequent question asked by mothers when they have a second child. Handling just one child during bedtime is a handful. Handling two is a balancing act. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don't.

Image links to: Sleep Sheep - Four Soothing Sounds From Nature

I've tried to address this question in my latest ezine article "Bedtime Routine for Newborn and Toddler".

Bedtime Routine for Newborn and Toddler

You can check it out or you can to the sleep category on this blog for more articles on baby and toddler sleep including your own sleep routine.

Whatever it is, the baby and toddler years are quick. So if you are struggling with lack of sleep, just tell yourself "this too shall past" and it really does.

Image links to: Sleep Sheep On The Go - Travel Sound Machine with Four Soothing Sounds

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A Peek Into The Future

This morning the little one was talking about going to University.

"I don't want to got overseas to University mummy. I won't know how to go to school. I won't have any friends. I won't know how to cook or wash my clothes. I want to go to University here. It will also be easier to write letters."

I told him that if he went to University here then we won't have to write letters as we can see each other during the weekends. Then I retorted that by that time, he will have his own friends and won't want to see me during the weekends to which he replied adamantly and in great surprise.


"No mum, I love you so much."

Haha. Just you wait and see son. I'm writing this down so that I can hold you to your words in future. ;)

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Sometimes I forget how young they are

Sometimes I have high expectations from my kids in their abilities to do things around the house or respond in a certain manner or in their attention spans. Sometimes I forget how young they are. Then there is a jolt or reminder that they are still very little.

Last night my boy told me that he cried at school. When I asked him why, he said that a prefect had asked him to go to the teacher's office to collect some books. My boy is a tall boy so he sits right at the back and often misses out on a lot of the action. He also does not understand Mandarin very well even after almost a whole year at school.

As a result, he did not really understand what the prefect was asking him to do. He also didn't really know where the teacher's room was. So he said he cried while walking around looking for the teacher's room to collect the books because he was worried that he could not manage to do this task he was asked to do. He said he wanted to go to his sister's classroom to ask her but eventually he did not.

Eventually he found the teacher's staff room by which time several kids were walking back with books. The teacher asked him whether he had come for books and gave him a pile to carry back to class which he did but because he was so late, there was no place for the books and he didn't know what to do. He got some help from some classmates who pushed some books aside for him.

This incident reminds me despite his maturity and how much he has grown to me, he is still very young and school is still a big place. When I imagine him walking around on his own with tears in his eyes, I felt so sorry for him. Of course I gave him a big big hug to make it up to him.

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Helping Your Child Accept a New Sibling

I haven't had much time to update my blogs recently because I have been busy spending time with my children. It amazes me to see how much they have grown. When I see new babies in a stroller, I think of the time when they were babies. Fortunately, it was not difficult for me to get my then toddler to accept her new baby brother. They do fight a lot these days as most siblings do but they accepted each other and had a really good start.

I've shared how I got my child to accept her new sibling here on my guest post at My Baby Radio.

Will my toddler ever accept our baby? Do hop over to My Baby Radio to read the article.

My Baby Radio is a delightful online radio for families and new parents. You can listen to relevant radio programs for parents on air or if you prefer, you can subscribe to their Baby Blog posts.

Mommy bloggers, if you have a great blog and would like your blog or articles to be featured online at My Baby Radio, feel free to contact Joanne from My Baby Blog.

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Potty Training Boys

It is funny why most parents who go on the internet to search for potty training problems or potty training tips often do a search for potty training boys or toilet training boys. Why not girls?

Are boys harder to potty train than girls?

I am a mother of both a boy and a girl and I am about to share with you why potty training boys is not any harder than potty training girls. As a matter of fact, in my case, it was actually easier. It took me more than a year to potty train my girl while it only took 10 days to potty train my boy.

It is all about the right timing and readiness. It is not about age or gender. Every child is different.

I would like to add that every parent is different too. Do not let others dictate how you should potty train your child.


Potty train your child when both your child and you are ready, not when others say you or he should be ready.


Potty Training - When to Start

As I have mentioned before, it is all about the right timing and readiness. Potty training is very easy when your child is ready. I have had friends who told me that their mothers or mothers in law potty trained their babies right from the time they were babies. Babies who have hardly mastered the art of sitting up. They made the babies sit in the potty each day and they were potty trained by the time they were xxxx months old or a year old.

That may be possible but that is hard work. To me, you should start your potty training when your child is ready. So how do you know when your child is ready? Trial and error. Try and if your child shows no sign of readiness, drop it and try again a few months down the road.

Potty Training Mistakes

It took me more than a year to potty train my girl. I did everything wrong. I yelled at her. I comforted her. I cried alone. It was madness. The nighttime potty training was even worse. She wet her bed every time. I would lay layers and layers of sheets but they would all get wet, even the pillows and blankets and the layers of layers of sheets. I was in despair.


She was just not ready. That was the biggest mistake of all.

We did it eventually but not without a lot of tears and frustration for the both of us.

Potty Training - When the time is right

It took me only 10 days to toilet train my boy. That is right. It was about 7 - 10 days. He was old enough to understand instructions. He could not only sit up on his own, he could walk around by then. I found that he was dry most nights. That was when I decided to start.

I was consistent with him. I explained things to him because he was old enough to understand. It took me only a week of wiping the floors and carpet accidents and tada.... we were done. Just like that. I never had to train him at night as well. He was dry most nights by then. So I just took off his diapers and reminded him not to pee in the night and he remained dry since.

I truly believe that when the time is right, and that time will come, potty training will be a breeze. With my boy, I had the benefit of experience so we had an easy, virtually no tears potty training. I did not have to sit him in the potty at the same time everyday as part of the "training" process.

Wait for the right time and do not be overly concerned about what others have to say.

Remember, every child is different. Some may take a little longer but it does not mean that your boy is any less smarter than the boy who was potty trained in less than a year. The boy who was toilet trained in less than a year may have taken 6 months to train whereas when the time is right, you will need just a week or two of stressless potty training.

Good luck!

Check out how I potty trained my boy in just slightly over a week in my Lazy Mum's Guide to Toilet Training. The rest of my articles on potty training are in my Toilet Training Category on my blog.

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When to buy first bra and how

This post is for parents with daughters.

When to Buy the First Bra?

Recently, my daughter who is 9 told me that her friends laughed at her when they were changing for gym class because she had developing breasts and they didn't. I told her that different girls develop at different ages and she was perfectly normal. She knows all about menstruation and puberty because we had spoken about it before but it still did not prepare her for being laughed at. I told her that I will take her bra shopping when the time is right but just when is the right time? When do you buy the first bra and how?

Breast Development Stages

I find this site very useful and answered most of my questions on when to buy the first bra and how. It is called My First Bra. There is a section for girls and another parents guide. The breast development stages is good for giving you an idea what to expect and when in terms of breast development. I also like the Bra Size Calculator. The information is useful for both girls and parents alike.

I told my daughter that she can change in the privacy of the toilet if she prefers but this is something that most girls will have to go through. Later on, there may be more locker room laughter about breast sizes etc. I find that being prepared myself, helps me guide my child along her puberty years.

It is useful to read up about puberty before discussing it with your child

Here is another useful article: Buying the Right Bra for Girls. It is from PoGo, another great site for young girls and parents supporting them through puberty.

Finding the Right Bra  and When Will I Start Developing from Kidshealth.org is useful too. There are many other useful articles there as well. Everything You Wanted to Know about Puberty. This one is a must read before you explain to your child about Puberty and Development and Menstruation etc. It really is very useful to read up on these matters before you have The Talk.

The Talk

Well, actually we didn't really have The Talk. One day, I read a newspaper article about menstruation and I read the entire article to her and added my own explanations. I told my daughter that some people may find it embarrassing to talk about such things and when there are things they don't understand, sometimes they laugh (referring to the gym laughter) and she retorted....

"Whats so embarrassing about that?" 

I like that attitude. I agreed with her that it is nothing embarrassing at all. It is just our body and how it grows. I also reminded her that she should come to me at any time with any questions that she has on anything.

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Seeing Red

Let me see. We have coughing, vomiting, rashes, diarrhea, nose congestion, sore throats, and  fever in the house and to top all of that up, I am now writing with a red eye. Yup. Woke up yesterday with a red eye and my back hurts. Did I leave anything out that we haven't got? Hmm.... no, I think we've got it all covered.

I wish that it will all go away in the blink of an eye. I don't want the red eye. I don't want the vomiting, rashes, diarrhea, sore throats, coughing, fevers, runny and congested noses. I don't want to see red.

We've spent hundreds of dollars at doctors and taken load of medicine. My fridge looks like a medicine dispenser now. When will it stop?

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Sick of Being Sick

Since before the school holidays, we have all been sick. The boy has seen the doctor 4 times, the girl, 2 times, me once and the man once. The kids were sick before the school holidays and they spent the entire one week of holiday hibernating at home, sleeping and eating medicine. They were bored to tears. When it was almost time to go back to school, the boy got a fever again and can't go back to school for another 2 days. He was on MC for 2 days before the school holidays. So he has an extra long holiday but not one that was enjoyable. The girl had fever during the holidays. She had some strange feelings that I am afraid may be hallucinations or auras during the few days when she had fever. Sigh.

The boy had 3 rounds of infections, the girl 2 rounds, me 2 rounds, the man 1 round but it looks like he is heading for 2nd round. I am truly sick of being sick. We can't seem to break this sick chain or cycle.

Besides being sick, we have been busy with other things too. At least we managed to fix our leaking air cons ourselves. However, our car got involved in a collision with another car. Nothing serious but the work involved is tiring. The running around making police reports, "negotiating" with the other driver, the repairs, the insurance claims all of which we are still right in the middle of doing. Sigh.

Oh and the income tax had to choose this time to call us in randomly to submit some documents in their audit. Sigh again. Tired. Tired. Hope that the kids and the rest of us recover completely and I mean completely soon and the rest gets settled so that we can move on with normal routine again.

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