The maid is back

The maid is back!

When the maid left, I was kind of glad to get the house to ourselves. By the end of the 2 months, I think we were getting the hand of it. I wasn't so hung up about getting everything done within the day.

But it's nice to have her back. I no longer have to iron clothes for the 5 of us anymore. Laundry can be really mountainous in this household and all that ironing was really drying up my hands and giving me sore hands.

I also get more time with Sean now, which is what we both missed the most when I was so busy doing this and that. There was one week, when I was so busy working as well as doing the housework, that he told me that he didn't need any help anymore. That kind of broke my heart a bit because I know it was because I was always so busy.

By the time he woke up, I was not next to him because I was busy doing something about the house. Then I would rush him through breakfast, lunch and send him to school. By the time he comes home, I wasn't not home and was only back at 9 or 9.30 pm ( during that really busy week), and then I had to have a quick dinner and shower. By the time I'm done, I had to get him to bed.

I felt him change that week. He was more grown up, and maybe a bit sad that mummy was too busy to play with him.

So I'm really glad to have the maid back. Sean and I can spend more time together doing things we like now.

More water please

Today, Sean was eating dried sotong. He enjoyed it so much that he kept eating more and more. Since I was doing my work, I didn't really keep track on how much he ate.

He kept asking more more water. Now, Sean doesn't like drinking water. So I was very surprised when he asked for water. Only after the third cup of water and when he said, "Water, water, quick, my tongue is hurting!", that I realised that the dried sotong must be quite spicy!

He he he he.... This little boy of mine is developing a taste of spicy food. We are not much of a spicy fan, but we let him try anyway.

Now I know how to get him to drink more water! =P

Oooops!!

Now he has a sore throat! Okay.... no more spicy dried sotong for a while for him. =P

Sean @ 44 months

I've been busy with the housework, so I haven't been taking photos of Sean this month. This was from last month. He drew "Red" the fire engine from the book, all by himself. He was very proud of his work. =D

Until I started interfering and then he lost interest. So ok, mummy shouldn't interfere so much.

Here is his corner. He likes to stick his 'work' on the wall. I can already imagine how his room will be like next time. It's going to be really messy!

He cut the Chugginton section from the Toys'R'Us pamphlet and pasted it on his wall. He told us that he wants all the Chugginton trains!

He was sick for a whole week and lost some weight to the point that his school pants would drop to his butt when he jumps. So I'm trying to fatten him up now.

He stopped drinking milk a long time ago and is a fussy eater, unless it's Unagi or mushroom and Fung Chau. Since he doesn't want milk or yogurt on it's own, I've been making fresh Mango lassi or banana lassi for him, which luckily he enjoys. So at least, he gets something milky into him. But that craze only lasted a few days, so now I'm back to persuading him to drink a small cup of milk every morning again.

If you remember, in the last blog, he has been wanting to help me doing the housework. So I've been letting him help me when ever he wants to help. Cooking is still a no-no because of the knives and fire involved. So I'll ask him if he would like to help me clip the clothes when I hang them. So during the week he was sick, he helped me a bit and then went back watching TV.

I asked " Don't you want to help?"
He said " Helping you to hang clothes is boooring."
Boring!!???

I thought I wouldn't get this kind of answer until he's much older? He's not even 4 and he already thinks that certain things are boring???

He's been getting bouncier, in the sense that he literally bounces here and there, making us feel tired just looking at him, and getting himself sent to the corner, just so that we get some peace. Every time he goes hyper-bouncy, we ask each other, "What sweet drinks have you given him today?" We don't really want to deprive him of his apple juice, but it really shows when he drinks sweet drinks too much. But despite his hyper-bouncy behavior, he can be really sweet.

I get lots of hugs and kisses all the time, and he tells me he loves me several times a day. No complains there :D It's God's way to reward mummies after a long day. It's a wonderful gift.

The day before Mother's Day, while I was baking an apple pie, he came to the kitchen and asked
" What are you making?" I said, " Apple Pie"
He said, " Hhmmm... sounds yummy. Thank you for making it, mummy."

Isn't that sweet?

Of course, when it comes to actually eating it, he only ate a small piece, and only after I pouted and said, " Don't you want to eat mummy's apple pie?"
He said, "ok. Hhmmm that was yummy."
I asked, " Do you want some more?"
He said, "No."

Darn it....



It's like when I slaved over making these colorful cookies with him because he's been asking me to make cookies together. And how many did he eat? 3 cookies! and after that he wasn't interested in eating them anymore. What am I going to do with the others?

Oh well, we did spend quite a fun afternoon together shaping all these cookies. It's the time spent together that counts, isn't it?

Sean @ 43 months

There are positive and negative things with a 3 year old boy going on 4. He is at this exasperating but lovable stage.

On the positive side:

Since I've been doing the housework, he's been wanting to help out, I guess to spend more time with me, and it's something new to him. I'm sure when he's a teenager, it'll be something he'll be trying to avoid all the time!

Mummy, I want to help you cook,wash the dishes, wash clothes, sweep, etc, etc.... Of course, I'd have been happy to let him help if Sean was 6 years old already, but at 3 going on 4,there are many things he still can't do. So I have been giving excuses why he can't help me.

I don't want to deter him from offering his help in the future when he can actually help. So I do allow him to help out, such as helping me put on the clips while I hang the clothes, which of course takes us twice as long to do it than if I do it by myself. Once in a while, he'll help me water the plants and feed the rabbit, unless he's watching TV and can't be bothered.

He wants to help me wash the clothes, so he kept opening the washing machine to look inside. *roll eyes* He keeps offering to help me cook, which of course, I'm always saying "No!" to. But I did let him wash the potatoes which didn't make too much of a mess.

He's getting better at sweeping the floor to clear up his own mess after cutting papers with a small broom and dustpan. Of course, it's not perfect and I have to finish the job, but it's a start.

He's been trying to wash the dishes whenever I send him to wash his hands at the sink. I'm always telling him not to touch the dirty dishes, but tonight, I let him wash his own plastic cup after he drank.

At school,

I'm quite positive that he's a class clown (not sure if this is a positive or negative =P). He is a bit of a joker at home, and it looks like it continues at school. He seems to be rather well known. His classmates often point him out to their parents. " That's Sean!" And when I asked him if he knows his classmates names, he says, "I don't know." Ok lah, he's getting better now, he remembers maybe 3-4 names now.

His classmates keep a look out for him when we pick him up from school. "Sean! your mummy/ daddy is here." Yesterday, one even passed me his water bottle which he forgot to put in his bag. They're really sweet.


On the negative side:

He still can't sit still unless he's watching TV. When watching TV, he'll be so glued to the TV that he's deaf and blind to everything. At other time, he'll be jumping here and there. So much so that his teachers lament that he can't sit still during lessons. He'll be monkeying around the class while he's supposed to sit and listen.

He's quite lucky his teachers dote on him and don't punish him often, and if they do, he probably gives his sad puppy face that they let him go free. But it's still a problem because his next teacher may not dote on him so much, and then he'll be punished very often.

The aftermath of being robbed

The act of crime was done within seconds.

I was sitting in my locked car waiting for the gate of my student's house to be open. As it was opening, there was an explosion of glass on the passenger glass. I screamed. Turned my head to the left and saw a hand lifting my handbag out of the car. The person went out of my vision and immediately ran off with his accomplice on their motorbike (which I didn't see but the maid did). I drove into the house. The gate was closed, and I went in to borrow a phone to call Sam.


The ordeal started after that.

First, I had to cancel my handphone, bank card and credit card.

The police report took 3 hours and we had to go to 3 police stations. We went to the one nearest our house first and had to sit through the excruciating slowness of the police officer typing the report into the computer with 2 fingers. We actually did our own report and printed it for the Police, but they needed to type it into their system. When he pressed enter, the whole report disappeared. He retyped it 3 times, and it disappeared 3 times!

So we went to another police station. The 4th entry also disappeared! Luckily the 5th time was successful. Then we had to wait for them to get a reply from whoever it was. We were then told to go to another police station to see an inspector. Luckily, that was the end of the reporting line.

I wasn't sure what I could tell them that wasn't already in the report. Basically, I didn't see the perpetrator. So I knew that it was futile since I couldn't give any descriptions. But it took 3 hours anyway.

Next, I had to replace my hand phone, new bank card and get new SIM card, which didn't activate, and therefore I had to go to Maxis again. It's a good thing, the people at Maxis are efficient. But Sam wanted to register with Maxis for land line and internet. So this week we’ve been to Maxis 4 times!

I still haven't had the time to report to the Embassy about the loss of my I/C and driving license. The car can't be used too because we need to order a new window. Unfortunately, our car being an old Opel, spare parts are hard to find.

Of course, with no license, I am practically legless. I'm going to have to get a Malaysian driving license since I won't be able to replace my Indonesian one any time soon. And that's going to be another ordeal. *Sigh*

Sam told me I have to sit through a 5 hour instructional video. Something about the danger of driving. I'm not looking forward to that. And then of course, go through driving lessons, which I don't think I really need, but have to do anyway.

I'm also going to have to replace a library book that was in my bag. I'm not looking forward to report it to Maria, the librarian. She can be quite sharp. *Shrudder* Especially since the book is an old edition. I wonder if it's still being sold in the bookshop. It's the first book of a series. So it's quite important to get it replaced. And I'm rather upset that I didn't get to finish reading it too!

If sitting in a locked car while entering a house compound is no longer safe, I wonder if any single woman driver is safe from these criminals. This definitely hasn't been a good week.

Maid-less in KL

The maid had to leave suddenly because her mum was very ill. We got her a plane ticket on Wed evening but she was too late. Her mum died on Wed morning.

I haven't been happy with the maid. She talks back to me, and since she's not my maid, she doesn't listen to what I say. I feel bad that this had to happen to her though.

Anyway, we're maid-less for the next 2 months. And it so happened that the first day we had no maid was my busiest day of the week and it was one of those days when you just didn't get enough sleep. I think I barely had 4 hours of sleep.

So the first day went like this:

Morning: Woke up, washed clothes, cleaned rabbit's cage, fed him, watered the plants, put the dry dishes back, washed dishes in the sink, hung clothes, made sure that Sam got Sean to bathe and brush his teeth, fed Sean breakfast, rushed to playgroup at 9:30am.

We were a bit late but that's ok. Returned and borrowed books, did a craft with Sean, cleaned up playgroup with the other mums at the end. We skipped story telling and rushed home. Heated up food for lunch. Got Sean to eat lunch (Feeding Sean is one of the most tasking tasks!), got him to bathe again because it was such a hot day.

Afternoon: Sam sent him to school that day while I took down the laundry and ironed. Then at 1.30pm, rushed out to teach 3 students. Came back at 6pm, had dinner that Sam cooked, washed dishes, ironed more clothes. After that, I was too tuckered out and had enough for the day. There's always tomorrow, right?

I was feeling rather kindly towards the maid. I thought: Oh, she must be so grumpy because she was worried about her mum, blah, blah, blah. Until......

I actually did the housework while still having to work (part time) and send Sean to school and playgroup, do grocery shopping, etc.

She really doesn't do her work very well.

After I mopped the floor, the floor felt so much cleaner than it has ever before. We resorted to walking with slippers at home because we couldn't stand the dust. We thought that the new place is extra dusty because of the proximity of the road to the living room, but I realized that it's just because she doesn't mop the floor.

She doesn't vacuum that well either because when Sam vacuumed the carpet, they were very dusty.

I wash, dry and ironed the clothes within the day, while clothes would take days to come back when she does it.

We wash the dishes right after we use and regularly put the dry ones into the cupboard, while with a maid around, the dirty dishes seem to pile on the table or the sink.

I do realize though that all these housework that the maid used to do is taking time away from Sean. Sean has had to entertain himself more and more. And sometimes the result is disastrous, like him spilling a bottle of sand-like basil seeds all over the carpet and making a huge mess of his toy area, smearing playdough all over the table or playing with bottles of paint when I'm not looking.

But he's been behaving well otherwise. And I think this experience with no maid is a great time for him to learn to do things for himself.

As for myself, I'm hoping the housework will give me a good work out. After not exercising for 4 years has made my body rather soft, and my belly big. People keep thinking I'm pregnant when I'm not! So hopefully I get to lose some belly fat during the next 2 months. =D

Bed sheets are important

I never realized how important bed sheets are until Sean slept in his own bed. The maid washed his bed sheet are replaced it with a plain one. He went back to sleeping with us.

I thought, Oh, maybe it was only the novelty of moving into a new place that caused him to move toward independence on his own. He hardly slept on his bed for the whole of last week. Sometimes Hubby or I would sleep there because it gets crowded with the 3 of us on a Queen size bed.

Then I had a thought. I changed back his bed sheet into the Mickey Mouse bed sheet. Just an experiment to see if he would behave differently. And YES! He went back to sleep on his own. =P

He still creeps into our bed in the morning, but that's ok. We kinda miss him sleeping with us. So this is a good arrangement. More space for me at night (and I don't get kicked when I sleep too!) and we get to be cozy in the morning. =D

On a side note, this morning I said to him, "Wan An" I mean " Zhou An" (good morning). He asked what was "Wan An" because he usually calls out to his teacher "U An" (good afternoon) when he goes to school. When I told him that " Wan An" "Zhou An" means "Good Morning" in Mandarin.

He said with this incredulous face, "You know how to speak mandarin too!!!!???"

LOL..... That really cracked me up, because I only know a few phrases, and my son was so surprised. Ha ha ha....