babee tales

Friday, 6 November 2009

It's been a rough month, taking care of sick kids. Nat passes the bug to didi, he passes it back to her, she passes it to him again! Sometimes, it seems never ending. When you see them on the road to recovery, playing with their stickers, drawing and colouring, just having fun with smiles on their faces and twinkle in their eyes, it really makes your day!

Over the past few weeks, I have been looking after nat quite dedicatedly, my maid looks after lucas. We figured no point for both of us to handle both kids, which increases the likelihood of cross-infection. When she cries, I'm there. I pat her to sleep, I sing her songs, I comfort her when she wakes up crying. However, since she is finally feeling better today, with less hacking, I figured I should go back to routine i.e having didi with me at night. Nat did not like this, she cried and wailed and it took my maid almost half an hour to comfort her.

Sleepless nights and hacking coughs/runny noses/fevers aside, the kids have progressed wonderfully, and for this I am always grateful and thankful.

Nat's latest obsession is jigsaws and we've accumulated quite a decent number, ranging from 3-4 pieces to about 30 pieces. For the more complicated ones, she will still insist on piecing it on her own, so I usually try to consolidate the similar looking pieces together for her or subtly suggest that this piece may go with that one. It's a great activity and keeps her occupied for quite a long time. Her writing skills are slowly improving and these days, I can just about make out the 'A' that she scrawls on the paper. She can now draw objects with eyes, ears, nose and mouth, this is a vast improvement from the time she would just scrawl rubbish on the paper. She can finally colour within the lines, this achievement must be attributed to popo who helped encourage her.

Her memory never ceases to amaze me. On one of our many visits to the pediatrician, she shared with me the story of Cinderella and Snow White, little tales that my mum had read to her. I could actually follow her storyline, with highlights of the ugly witch and the seven dwarfs. What got me laughing though, was that sometimes she got confused and suddenly in the middle of Cinderella, there was mention of a bowl of porridge on the table (obviously she was confused and had got it mixed up with Goldilocks and the Three Bears).

My darling lucas is now perfectly stable on his feet and just loves tottering everywhere, up and down, left and right, into the kitchen, into the playroom and into the nooks and corners of the living room. I've started flash cards with him and surprisingly, he actually focuses. I've also started reading storybooks to him and he focuses on my reading, peering intently at the pictures in the book. He enjoys it when I am overly-dramatic, with loud and soft tones in my voice. He responds to selective keywords e.g Say the word lion and he pets his chest indicating fear. Recite Jack and Jill to him and he will touch his own head, showing how Jack broke his crown. Even though he is my second child, I still love watching his little progressions into toddlerhood.

Just the other day, I was watching a documentary on new parents attending antenatal classes and I just started to reflect on the earlier days (not so long, in 2006) when Gary and I attended the antenatal classes together. Although tiring, those were great experiences we shared together as a couple and I'm glad we made an effort to enjoy such times together. As busy parents of two young kids now, such times are rare.

Now, if only the kids could recover quickly, I would love to enjoy family time once again in the great outdoors!