Sugar and spice

...and all things nice, but she'll always be a sunbeam to me.

I'm so glad that...

...Stardust is a good listener.

People have commented that Stardust is a well-behaved boy.  This is not to say that he is a complete angel all of the time (because he isn't!).  However, he is generally sweet-natured, polite and obedient in public.

I have found that Stardust is more likely to display 'appropriate' behaviour when we are out, if I let him know what is expected of him beforehand.  I use the word 'appropriate' very loosely, because our expectation of 'appropriate' behaviour changes depending on the situation that we are in and who we are with.

For example, when he is out with MDH at the park, he is allowed to run freely ahead of us and enjoy exploring the space.  However, when he is with his grandparents, he has to stay close to them and hold their hand as they are not able to chase after him.

I do not expect Stardust to be able to decide how he should behave depending on the situation he is in.  He is far too young to be able to make the judgement by himself.  So, I try my best to prepare him beforehand and it usually does the trick.

He is a reasonable little boy - he really listens to what I say and he tries his best to comply.  And I am so glad for that!

I am still alive

I'm at the 16 week mark now.  Vomiting has subsided to around 2-3 times a day.  Episodes of nausea and uncontrollable retching are greatly reduced to less than 10 times a day.  I am now able to hold a conversation, spend about 20 minutes in front of a computer screen, and read a whole story to Stardust before I start feeling ill again.

That is all.

Looking through the window

...we can see two stripes of pink.

I'm very excited but also very, very, very ill.

Normal programming will resume when I resume feeling normal.

It's wick

MDH has been telling Stardust the story of 'Jack and the Beanstalk'.

After a few retellings, we realised that Stardust was more interested in the growing Beanstalk than in Jack and his skyline adventures.  Stardust even disassembled one of his musical instruments and excitedly distributed all the green beans into various receptacles in his room in the hope that one of them would sprout into a giant beanstalk (hooray for me).

So this morning, I decided that it was time to show Stardust how seeds germinate.  Green beans are, incidentally, great for this purpose because they germinate overnight and grow pretty quickly.

I distributed the remainder of the green beans into yoghurt pots with cotton wool at the bottom (Stardust had already thrown the rest out of the window, Jack's Mother style,  before I could say 'killer litter') and Stardust very carefully watered them with a teaspoon.

We put one pot in the kitchen, one in his bedroom and the last one on the dining table.  Stardust will check on them every morning, water them, and take pictures of their progress.

He seems quite excited about the whole thing, and has proclaimed himself the 'Protector of the Beans', making sure that they remain undisturbed by sharks, bears, bees and mosquitoes.

Have a great weekend!

Another dream

Stardust woke up from his nap early, sobbing piteously.  I went to see him, but he did not want to get out of his cot, so I let him be.  He carried on weeping for a few minutes, then called for me.

I had no idea why he was feeling so sad, so I asked him why he was crying.  He just kept saying, 'Stardust is sad'.

After a while, I asked him if he had a bad dream and he shook his head and said, "No Mummy, a *sad* dream".

He dreamed that there was a little butterfly in his cot which was resting next to him.  The butterfly flew out of his cot and onto the wall, and then he caught it in his hand.  After a while, a Big Butterfly came and Stardust released the little butterfly up into the air to join the Big Butterfly.  He felt sad because the little butterfly flew away.

I felt sad too and I am not sure why.

Movie Night

Eating:
Grilled meltique beef steak, medium rare
Swiss brown mushrooms and onions in gravy
Baked russet potatoes dripping with grated cheese
Boiled peas

Drinking:
Pear juice

Watching:
1. How Stella Got Her Groove Back (What?!  Don't judge me, ok?!  It was on TV!)
2. Dogville (Intriguing, sad and horrifyingly true to life.)

Susanna Wesley's Household Rule #7

Here are my thoughts on Susanna Wesley's Household Rules:

Rule #7: Give them nothing that they cry for, and only that when asked for politely.

This rule is ABSOLUTELY enforced at my house.  I absolutely detest children who act like they are the boss of the household and whine or scream for what they want.  And I blame the parents who give in to them.  Yes, it is much, much easier to give in because it will make the child shut up but it is NOT worth it.

I started teaching Stardust to say 'please' once he started to indicate what he wanted at around 5 months old.  At 5 months old, he was absolutely pre-verbal but I really did not want him to learn that he had to scream or cry before he got what he wanted, so I taught him to sign 'please' using American Sign Language.

This meant, of course, that I moved his little hand across his chest for him and said "Please, Mummy", before giving him whatever he was wanting.  After consistently helping him to sign (even for things he did not ask for, which meant that I usually held a conversation with myself viz. "Please Mummy help me into my car seat? well, of course darling, what a polite little boy you are!  Well done!"), he finally began to sign independently at around 7 months old.  Thereafter, I insisted that he sign 'please' before he received anything that he wanted.

This lasted about another 10 months, and we were doing very well...until he started talking.

Then things changed a little.

Well, when he started talking, he also started whining/shouting/demanding/screaming/crying incoherently...so although he does say 'please' when he wants something, I have to teach him that he needs to modulate his voice as well.  So, we are working on that now.  Stardust is currently aware that he needs to use his 'nice voice' and ask sweetly with a smile.  And he tries.  Very, very hard.

He still needs prompting, but I am hoping that with persistent training, he will grow up to be a polite gentleman.

Bottoms up

Stardust's breakfast this morning (30 minutes):

1. One small glass of milk

2. One small glass of orange juice (heavily diluted with water)

3. One bowl of oatmeal with a spoonful of honey

4. One handful of blueberries

5. Half a boiled egg

My breakfast this morning (5 minutes spread out over the course of 30 minutes):

1. One small glass of water

2. The other half of the boiled egg

3. Three bites of toast with peanut butter (rest of the toast abandoned due to interruption by a small boy who needed to go to the toilet/couldn't reach his toy/needed a cuddle)

I really miss lazy mornings and leisurely breakfasts.

If you're able to this weekend, please have a relaxed morning and an equally chilled out breakfast on my behalf, please.  And if you're able, leave a comment about it so that I may live vicariously.

Have a great weekend!

Caricatures

So, we are at the Singapore Art Museum, after having climbed up THREE flights of stairs in order to find the children's interactive corner (note to Art Museum Curator: are those stairs meant to act as some sort of deterrent?  I thought the whole point was to encourage parents to bring their children to the museum!).

The corner was set up with pencils and paper, and there was a section where kids could look into a mirror and trace what the image onto a sheet of transparency film with coloured markers, hopefully ending up with some form of self-portrait.  I thought that was quite a clever idea, really.  It was just too bad Stardust does not have the coordination to complete a tracing.  Afterwards, you could stick the film onto the wall (static forces make it stay put) with all the other portraits.

Stardust was studying the wall of portraits with great interest when he suddenly got all excited and started jumping up and down yelling, 'That's Mumby!  That's Mumby there!'.

Apparently, I look exactly like that sketchy character in the centre of that picture.  According to my son, I have no neck, a huge head and a sausage nose.

Well, at least I appear to be a happy person.