Work. Work. Work.

Today my gal asked me a question that left me stunned and immediately felt my heart wrenching. 

As my Claire Organics is catching up with the expansion plan, I have loads of meeting filling up my weekends lately. As well as today, which I have to rush off for 4 meetings right after her morning music school. 

So while saying goodbye to her before leaving the house, she asked:"Mommy, why do you always go to work?"

Stunned, speechless, heart-wrenching, and all sorts of emotions rushed in. What a good question which I asked myself too, sometimes. 

And I noticed how much she's grown. She longed for my companion and my absence has been affecting her a lot. That wrench my heart so badly.

She's never fail telling me that she misses me. It's now for me to have a better arrangement so to make sure that she's not neglected by this careless mother.  

I love you, baby. 

I alway will. 

XOXO

Happy 15 Months Old My Darling!

Posing for the camera already!

2 days ago I got to spend a day with Darling as Mom fell sick so reasonably I took leave.

Darling seems to know that it's rare that I'm home with her. She's rather clingy to me since morning. A bit more cranky than usual too. Wanted me to carry immediately after she woke up and refused to be in the playpen even though I was so desperate to pee!

In the end I had no choice but to put on her shoes, send her out to the porch with Grandpa who's doing gardening, at least she'll be under supervision. The moment she turned around and I wasn't there, she started crying. All I can do is dash to the loo, take a quick pee and rush back. Grandpa was inside the house with her as he worried that she'll be the target of mosquitoes. Smile all over when she saw Mommy :)

I love that she hugged me and lay her head on my shoulder while I'm carrying her to sleep. Occasionally she'll look up, gently touching my eyes, nose and mouth (she learnt about hers lately). Or, she'll 'sayang' my face and give me a gentle kiss. When she got so close to me, I rubbed my nose with hers. She just loved this new game and picked it up right away. Came close to me wanted to rub my nose! :)

I'd say that I pretty enjoy the day with Darling as it's really only once in a while. I don't mind the clinginess too! As a mother who practice attachment parenting, I appreciate it instead of avoiding it :)

Again, happy 15-month-old my Darling! Mommy Daddy love you so much!
xoxoxo

Darling is 14 months Old!

Paying full attention to the TV commercial!

Darling turned 14 months old today! Did I miss anything???

She's a little adventurer now goin around with her soon-to-stabilise steps to discover every corner of the house. Lots of fun and exercise for all of us! If we pick her up while she's walking happily, she will be making noises an just wants to get down to the floor.

Oh no, I just realised my little gal has grown so much. Real soon I will be missing carrying and holding my baby! :'(

So that you won't be regret later? Make sure you had lots of skin-to-skin contacts since your baby is born. Carry your baby will definitely not spoil them!

Happy 11 Months Old My Baby Gal

Hmm what are you looking at, dude?  :D

My Darling turns 11 months old today! Can you believe it!?
I gotta start planning for her first birthday real soon :)

You turned into a smart little gal you know that? You've learned so much that Mommy can't keep up!

Solid foods are goin well lately, we've started lumpier food instead of the mushy purée.

Porridge with fish, pumpkin, carrot, spinach, potato, tomato and I've changed her white rice to organic mixed grain of brown rice, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, oats and barley.

Enjoying Pumpkin Porridge!

Last week you joined Mommy and Daddy for Japanese udon for the first time and you loved it! :)

We've been practicing to have you on the high chair with us during meal times. You really enjoy the bread pieces and sometimes plain rice and happily feeding yourself with fingers :) Mommy's getting you your utensils and we'll practice self-feeding with spoon k! One thing is, you hate it when Mommy pointing your leg on the food tray and say 'put down', you'll be whining but putting your foot down unwillingly :)

You've learned so much and I hope I didn't miss anything here. Among your first words are:
Mama (Mommy)
Dada (Daddy)
Papa (Popo)
Wrow wrow (Dog)
Mao Mao (Cat)
Rerrrrr Rerrrr (Lion)
Duck (yes, Duck!)
Baba (Bao Bao, Bye bye, Apple, Pineapple)
Be ber (Bird bird)
Mum mum (Eating time)
... (I'm sure there's more but my mind's stuck!)

Favourite games of the month:
Peekaboo - You discovered the curtain and you'll pull it over your face then pull it away to peekaboo with me :)
Be 'caught' - When you're doin certain things that you're not supposed to do and someone approached to say 'no-no', you'll fall right onto the mattress excitedly and plant your face to it.

In the morning I'll be waked up by this cutest voice calling Mama :) And you said Mommy yesterday for the first time!

Mommy love you so much my baby!
Sweet Pea Mom
xoxoxo

Happy Mother's Day (in advance!)

Mother's Day is long to go but I can't wait to share these lovely pix already!

Mommy giraffe welcoming her baby with the first kiss...

Isn’t this mother wallaby so adorable, proudly kissing her little joey as he stretches his leg (it must get cramped in there)? Also, did you notice that his claws are so much tinier than his mom’s? How do you like their matching pink noses?

Here's to you all mommies!

Nothing sounds as sweet as “mommy”
Spoken from a child’s lips;
And nothing is as timeless as “mother”
No matter how old that child gets.

Nothing will ever truly compare
To a mother’s wondrous love;
Not even when speaking
Of angels from above.

She is a rock when we are weak
A shelter when life may storm
She is a true companion
In each and every form.

The bearer of our hurt
The expresser of our joy
Even through all life’s ups and downs
No job would she rather employ.

She is a friend, a leader,
A teacher, and confidante.
A healer, a listener, and
A rock to lean on

So we celebrate our mothers
On this very special day
And hope that she remembers
We wouldn’t have it any other way.

20 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I'd Had Kids

During the toughest earliest weeks after Darling was born, it was terrible. I mean my feeling. Everyone was congratulating us even my gynae told us to enjoy our baby. But things ain't what we've imagined, not even close!

Apart from having to deal with the crazy hormonal post-natal emotion, sleep deprivation, incision recovery (I'll share my dramatic birth story soon, I promise!), trying to calm a crying baby just made us go insane.

I always thought it was mean to tell people horror stories before they had children/ went into labour/ bought a house. But I'd WISHED that someone had told me how hard babies are.

This article described how precisely I felt that I just had to share it!

Source: CafeMom

These are things I wish someone had told me before I'd had kids or been knocked up.

1. After your first pregnancy, you will look six months pregnant as soon as the positive pee stick dries.

2. Your nipples will look like pancakes.

3. When you're pregnant, you're certifiable, but you have to not realize it. Instead you think you're the only sane one left on the planet.

4. If this is your first pregnancy, you will assume that this pregnancy is the most important pregnancy since Mary birthed Jesus.

5. You will eat a lot of food to try and make yourself less queasy. While it doesn't quell the nausea, it will cause a couple of extra pounds to be added to your frame. Which will annoy you because YOU DIDN'T EVEN ENJOY PUTTING THEM ON.

6. Worrying about random things will become a part of your daily routine.

7. Suddenly everyone will waltz through your dreams and have wild passionate sex with you.

8. Someone, somewhere will buy you the ugliest clothes you've ever seen and you will have to sit there, grinning, and tell them that you looooovvvveee the little outfit with the bows on it. For your 10-year old son.

9. Honest-to-God strangers will not only feel the need to rub your belly without so much as a handshake, but will then ask you if you plan on breastfeeding.

10. IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, tell no one what you plan on feeding your child. Or make tasteless jokes like, "We were thinking Jack Daniels, but do you think that Crown Royal is better?" Otherwise, you're going to get a lecture. If you're tasteless, people will run away from you.

11. Most of the baby crap out there that they try to sell you is just that: crap. It's okay. Buy as much as you want. You'll realize it later.

12. You will hardly ever spend time in your perfectly coordinated nursery. Kids don't play in their bedroom until they're about 4 or 5, so while I would never suggest NOT doing up a nursery, I wouldn't go butt-wild on it either.

13. YOU WILL KNOW WHEN YOU ARE IN LABOR. NOTHING ELSE FEELS LIKE LABOR, NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU WANT IT TO.

14. No one but you can figure out what is actually in the ultrasound pictures.

15. Feeling the baby kick for the first time is perhaps the finest part of pregnancy. It only becomes painful when their ickle feet get to be the size of golf balls. Mean, busy golf balls.

16. Maternity clothes will fit differently during different parts of pregnancy. What might look cute with your wee beer-belly during the first trimester will look downright ill-fitting hours before you give birth.

17. Steer clear of anyone who claims any of the following:

- I was back in my size 4s when I left the hospital!
- I've never felt better than when I was pregnant!
- Breastfeeding really helped me take those 5 pesky pounds off!
- Having a baby is soooooo easy!

I mean, even if they're not lying through their grubby teeth, they're going to make you feel bad. And TRUST ME when I tell you that you will have plenty of things to feel bad/inadequate about.

18. Pregnancy is an excellent cure for modesty. I cannot recall a time when I didn't whip down my pants in front of the doctor WHETHER OR NOT THEY ASKED ME TO.

19. Babies cry. A lot. It's not your fault.

20. Enjoy it as best you can. Sure, you feel ugly, you're gangly, you've reached hippo-like proportions, you can hardly make it an hour without going to the bathroom and peeing out a tablespoon of liquid, you have heartburn so badly you could sear paint from the walls, and you're starving yet queasy. It's all true. But it's also magical.

What would you add to the list?

Parenting: Mainstream Parenting Ideas May Be Hurting Our Children

we practice attachment parenting!

I couldn't be more agree on the article I've read on CafeMom recently. Thought it will be great help for mommies who are confused of which parenting style to practice.

Mainstream Parenting Ideas May Be Hurting Our Children

Sleep training. Crying it out. Not my thing. But it is for many parents. Does this sound familiar? At bedtime, you must be firm. You must make it clear that bedtime is not optional, that once the routine is over and they've had that "last hug" or last "drink of water," that they just need to go to sleep.

This battle of wills even starts when babies are newborns with us being told, "You must start putting them down when they're awake so they learn to self-soothe," and eventually leads to the idea that a baby needs to be put in their crib and left to cry, so they "understand" that it's bedtime and they must sleep.

We are convinced if we fail to do these things, our child will lack good sleep, the family will be exhausted, you will have no routine, everyone will be completely miserable, and your infant will "know" that they can "manipulate" you.

Did you ever wonder where these ideas come from, and why many other countries look at these practices as cruel and strange?

Psychology Today calls the practice an "Evolutionary Mismatch." People thought that extreme stern parenting is the only way to form your child into a righteous and productive member of society. Sounds fun! There are even some relatively recent parenting models that suggest that anything other than this type of parenting is un-Christian or ungodly. Oookay.

What it boils down to is that sometime during the end of the 1800s, there was also a large movement away from spirituality and a heavier interest in science for all the answers. Which produced John Broadus Watson's extreme book Psychological Care of Infant and Child that told parents not to cuddle, hug, and kiss their children that much because it "robbed the child" of time he could be learning about his universe. He even went so far as to say that he questioned if parents should even be able to raise children themselves, since science obviously could do a better job, and wasn't emotional about it. He was very firm in his insistence that well-parented children should be like robots.

Many still believe in this form of parenting. However, as Psychology Today points out, children just aren't made like that. Back in "the day," an infant or toddler who was alone in the dark was afraid they were going to be eaten. Parents now think, "There's no tiger," and therefore dismiss the baby's biologically designed needs ... however, that doesn't mean the baby doesn't still feel fearful and lonely. And they certainly aren't trying to manipulate or test you. In many other countries, it's really rather simple -- they believe a secure child is a happy child. And it's up to us as parents to make the child feel secure, even if that means you're protecting them from the tiger in the dark that you know isn't there.

Source: CafeMom

What's your parenting style & what do you think about the mainstream parenting?

Cry it out? Think again!

Cry it out? Think again!

During the toughest earliest weeks after Darling was born, I received all sorts of suggestions of letting baby cry, not to carry her all the time in fear of spoiling her & we'll end up get manipulated etc...

When we ran out of idea, exhausted & drained by trying to settle a crying baby, I was offered to try the cry it out method, which I was reluctant.

We let her cried for less than a minute, her face turned red & she's out of breathe.. Next thing I found myself crying with an aching heart. From that moment I told myself, that's it, that's all I'd try & nothing could ever get that happens again. I apologised to Darling & promised mommy will never do that to her anymore.

Sweet Pea Mom
xoxoxo

Are you contemplating on trying the cry it out method? Or what's your sleeping solution?