SAHD - definitely

I have been tagged by two mommies - BP and Shelia. Now I am stressed out. But I will start with BP's topic as it is indeed my ambition to be a SAHD. The photos in this blog entry has absolutely no relevance to the topic, except maybe the fact that En has taken after my TV freak genes.

I have always openly proclaimed this ambition as I rather enjoy staying home with the kids and doing a bit of housework. But having a maid / housekeeper around will definitely make the experience more enjoyable. Therefore, I have, for the longest time, told my wife to climb up the corporate ladder swiftly and earn enough dough for me to stay home with the two boys. That will solve the problem of my wife constantly worrying about what the maid and other caretakers are doing with our kids while we are at work.

Watching them growing up in distinct phases is a rare treat and definitely therapeutic. For a while, I even enjoyed waking up in the wee hours of the morning to feed En, burp him, and pat him to sleep. It helps with bonding and I am rather a permanent fixture in En's billboard of favorite person -- No. 1 that is. It pays off, and the rewards are ...well rewarding. For Xuan, I got lazy. Only recently did I start to feed him at midnight daily. We are not as close, but am heading in the right direction. It's deja vu again, and I rather enjoy watching the bloke suckle the bottle while lying in his rocker -- he only feeds in his rocker. He's easy to burp (all thanks to Dr Brown bottle) and sleeps without the need to pat. Just rock him hard and he'll doze off after a while.

Finally, I can be the male version of tai-tai. Ha Ha. I will bring the boys to eat cake , drink coffee, hang out at libraries, bring them for children shows. In the evening, we will play basketball, swing the swing and slide the slide --- cool. There will be no more office politics, burnt weekends, and late nights trying to chase after people to clear work.

And Tag... you're it!
Now for us to hear from these fellow moms and dad:

• JoyfulJazzyMummy of {Every little blessing}
• nohp13 of Brightsong
• Skyy Low of Skyy the limit

Instructions
Folks, here’s how it works:
1. So easy peasy, if you were given a choice, would you be an SAHM or FTWM? Just provide 3 darn good reasons.
2. Include your post link to the list below and finally,
3. Tag another three mommies

List (so far -- inherited from JoMel, including my own dream job):
1. Immomsdaughter prefers to be an SAHM
2. Miche prefers to be an SAHM too.
3. SYH prefers to be a PTWM.
4. Shoppingmum is definitely an SAHM material.
5. WMD definitely prefers FTWM.
6. Nomadic Mom THINKS she prefers to be a PTWM.
7. Dancing Queen is a PTWM.
8. JoMel will be an FTTT.
9. BP dreams of being an FTBM.
10. Fatherhoot dreams of being a SAHD - no doubts about it.

Magic

I was sick for the past two days. So I had the golden opportunity to stay home and interact with the kids. Both surprised me. But what touched me most was En finally grasping the concept of sharing and getting along -- albeit grudgingly.

First, we read a book of "big" and "small" with Xuan. En enjoyed boasting about his knowledge of the concept to his brother and answered every questions I threw at him enthusiastically. He even cheered himself on when he got it right. His brother was obviously amused. Then, we went on to flash cards. Although En was resistant to the idea, he reluctantly shared his cards with Xuan when I demanded that he did so. Xuan went on to put the cards into his mouth. I asked En to "educate" his brother about the concept of edible. En looked bemused, paused, and put a card (8 oranges) into his mouth ---geez.

Then our neighbour's kid came to our house. He was fidgeting with our stuff (like he always does) and En was puzzled by this strange visitor. He kept repeating "Kor Kor" while eating his dinner, and even offered a toy to the kiddo after he was done. This has never happened before.

Then, En spent an enjoyable evening playing, prancing and making a fool of himself with his cousins and Momo across the basketball court. This was quite a feat considering just a week ago, he was crying everytime he saw the same cousins. He refused to even go near their house when we bring MOMO for her evening walks. We were hoping it was a phase and Miew tried to bring him there more often to socialize. Guessed it worked. Under the navy blue sky and sweltering heat, the adults sat on the deck, watched and were duly entertained by the kids. It was magical while it lasted ---- until dinner time that is.

Words roll

En is now on a roll when it comes to speaking. He is picking up everything we are saying like a high IQ parrot, either we start to swear in 3-syllabus words knowing his cap is at 2, we better start to think before we speak. Shit (oops). Anyway, over the weekend, he had been babbling non-stop, and has mastered the irritating word "No", shit (oops). Other comprehensible words in his dictionary (as of 1 July 9.p.m --- when he went to bed) includes:

Words/meaning:
Car - cars (his first word). Different type of vehicles are differentiated by sign language e.g. riding a motorcycle.
Bus-ssh - bus.
Big - big. Commonly use with Big Bus. When use on its own, refers to elephant.
Star - stars.
Papa - me.
Didi - Xuan his brother.
Momo - dog.
Pour Pour - Maternal Grandma.
Gong Gong - Maternal Grandpa.
Ye Ye - Paternal Grandpa.
Bing Bing - his cousin across the street.
Kai Kai - his cousin across the street, Bing Bing's brother.
Poo - shit.
Duck, dog, cow, fish, cat, bear - various animals.
Me - him.
Peese - Please.
Mum Mum - eat.
Ham - ham.
Egg - egg.
Bl-ead - bread.
Fork - fork.
Spoon - spoon.
No - no.
Issh - yes.
walk - take a walk.
work - work. Usually referring to people not around in the house.
Two, four, six, eight - the numbers he can recite ... interestingly only the even nos.
Draw - to draw.
Sssss - the thing is hot.

If you are sharp, you would notice one important word missing --- yes "Mummy" which he still refuses to say. Strange boy this.

We went to United Square today, and for the first time he saw kids practising fencing footwork. He was engrossed, and thereafter keep jumping up and down, trying to assimilate the fencers' footwork -- strange boy this >++D