PonyTales

At approximately 5 am today, little Zoe gave me a pleasant surprise. Today, she gave me an early morning greeting on her tummy with arms prop up and head up looking at me grinning ear to ear. She finally turn over all by herself (100%). I can see she is so proud of that

When I pick her up to feed her, she was still trying to twist her body like want to turn around…hahaha

Actually, she has been trying to turn over for many weeks already, but usually up to about 50 - 70 % only and then turn back - tired and face all red. She is a bit on the chubby side so I guess it makes it harder for her to turn. Somehow, the round tummy make her roll back and the chubby legs is all over the place trying to get a steady grip to balance the entire body…hehehe

Hey Zoe! Daddy and Mommy is proud of your achievements so far yea! It is such joy to see you grow everyday

I am a full-time working mom (FTWM). Recently, I heard from two colleagues that they are thinking of quitting their job or taking unpaid leave to care for their babies. This is not out of their choice, but desperate because they have problems getting a babysitter for their babies.

As a mother, I felt for them - regardless whether the problems is with them or the nanny. In situation like this, it is pointless to point fingers and blame because at the end of the day - it will always be the mother who will need to sacrifice. I guess once we are a mother, the priority is really our child.

I count my blessing so far for not being in this type of situation. I am not sure whether I will face it one day but deep inside, I know that I want to be with Zoe as much as I could as she reaches childhood. I remember my own childhood with my mom (a housewife) and it was good. All the mother-daughter time we had and wholesome home cooked meals - I still miss it today.

For me, eventually I will be at home with Zoe for a while - as a homemaker until the day she is old enough and found her own nest. As for career, I am also not that willing to give up and part with the independence of having my own income. So how?

This is the balance that mother like me need to juggle. It is a fact that we must accept the first time we see our baby - eye to eye.

How to strike this balance? and have the best of both worlds?
The best option for now is to work from home. Sadly, not many employers in our country fancy this idea.

So, I know I have to work extra hard now to enable myself to work from home. I am still working on it and cannot be 100% sure that I will be able to strike the balance one day. Anyhow, the idea is there and if I do not try, I will never know. I pray for God’s guidance and blessing.

This post is to remind myself that I still have homework to do…ha ha ha! For the sake of Zoe and for my own well being

Just thought that I want to share this.

Last Saturday night, we came back home from dinner and grocery shopping and found out that we have no electricity - only our unit.

We were tired cause it has been a long day of house chores and I need to wash up Zoe as well. Hubby was trying his best to identify the cause of the problem but after a couple of minutes, we knew that we could not fix this ourselves.

Out of desperation, we called the contractor that renovate our unit for some advise. At that moment, he was with friends in Midvalley queueing to get tickets to watch a movie. So, he told us that his brother (also a contractor) will be coming over to our unit to help us. His brother came shortly after but also fail to restore the electricity. He made a few calls and the next we know is they cancelled their movie outing and is on their way to our unit to help us fix our problem. They even brought another friend, who is an electrician.

When they arrived and saw me carrying Zoe in the dark, they immediately knew that they need to fix the problem fast. It was not easy to identify the problem, and everyone was sweating in the dark doing all they could until after midnight and they manage to restore the electricity.

A few of them are totally strangers to us and we learned later that they are actually our neighbours living in the other block. Hubby quickly took out some cash to pay for their services but they refuse to take it. They are all there that night as neighbours to help us out - no intention to make any money out of it.

I felt so blessed that night and thank God for these urban angels that He sent us. I guess we finally found a nice neighbourhood to live in.

I have not posted any entry for a while, reason being very busy (excuse!) as I have just moved into my new home on the 28th April. Almost finish sorting out all our stuff and yea…we really have a lot of stuff eventhou it is just the 3 of us.

We are still getting used to the new home, especially me. I see that hubby and Zoe is doing fine in the new place. Thank God Zoe do not show any anxiety to the new home and she seems to sleep better, longer hours at night…yipee (Fingers cross that she will do the same every night from now on forever and ever…Amen!)

Occasionally, hubby still ask, "Where is the can opener? this? that?". Hehehe, he seems like a new member of the household. Cannot blame him as I did most of the unpacking and only I know exactly where are all the stuff (as usual , Mommy is the Home Minister).

Our new home this time is very different from the previous one. We made an effort to furnish it better with more built-in cabinets (with doors), heavier and better quality furnitures. This is all we could do now to make sure Zoe grow up in a safe, secure and a slightly better environment. As we are on a budget, most of the built-in cabinets are bought from Ikea and we DIY it ourselves - save us a lot there. We worked OT at night for 2 weeks to finish assembling all the cabinets and put it up…very tiring…. We (me actually) swear loudly that this is the last time we are going to DIY cabinets. Yet…I know that we will probably going to do it again in the next new home. We will probably never learn to just sit back, relax and let the contractor do everything. We are just sooo hands-on (ke-poh) and like to get ourself all worked up in a sweat doing things we are not trained to do. Okok…I am making the DIY concept sounds so boring and no fun. The truth is, it is quite fun if you have the time, right tools, in the company of fun people and a contractor who can standby if everything else fails

Ha! Ha! Ha! Our new home smell like Ikea store and this is gonna last for the next few weeks. Do you know…Ikea stuff have this certain "feel good" smell that makes u wanna buy, buy, buy their things…Hmmph, don’t know how they generate this biological marketing weapon eh!?
Anyway, I will just leave the smell there and let it fade naturally. Learned my lesson once trying to cover the smell by using some other fragrance. Turn out real bad and almost fainted everytime i open the wardrobe…ewww!

Day time at the new place is still noisy as quite a number of neighbours are still renovating their place. Night time is very quiet and peaceful compared to the old place. I like it and feels that time just slowed down a bit for me when it is peaceful - can relax a bit.

I hope it will remain the same when the place is fully occupied. There are still some teething problems here and there, but nothing too big till I loose my sleep laa. It is common to have some slight problems in every new place. Over time these problems will ease away.

Hmm…planning to take Zoe for a swim this weekend at the new pool. Hot weather like this and can see some neighbour’s kid having fun in the pool. Little Zoe’s eyes so big looking at those kids in the pool - guess she really wanna join them