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Naked ::

I get naked with my kids and a lot of people think it's funny. They tell me, "What? Your kids don't say anything about….erm…your privates?". I am thinking to myself, why should they say anything funny about my erm-privates? There's nothing funny about it.

The only quality time I spend with my kids at home is when I am taking a group shower with them in my VERY SMALL AND CROWDED bathroom. Originally, this bathroom was a big one, a linked and shared bathroom with my brother-in-law's room. However, now, it is small enough for a small sink, the toilet bowl, some hangers and probably some shower gel and shampoo. Suffice to say, there's probably more than ample space for ONE person to take a shower in there, which is normally the case. But for me, I take a shower with my kids and we're all smelling each other's armpits here. (Gross)

But I love getting all wet and….well, clean with my kids. It's really quality time and I highly recommend this activity to all mothers out there. Fathers are welcome to try this activity out too.

Only recently, specifically two days ago (at the point of writing this article), Jared started to ogle at my breasts everytime we're in the shower. It's as if he's only started noticing my breasts and he's suddenly realized that, "Hey, that looks like my milk bottle". The one time I let him nurse in the bathroom, I have set myself up for a disastrous bath time.

Imagine this: Joshua is complaining about shampoo getting into his eyes and Jared is pulling at me to bend lower a little so that he doesn't have to crane his neck so far up to feed. In the meantime, I am reaching for the shower gel with my right hand to rub it on Jared while he nurses and my left is cleaning up Josh's face of shampoo. All this while, I am hoping that there's no soap or shampoo left on my body to spice up my milk supply.

Joshua, my little angel from Hell has changed his behavior a little. Sometimes he's good and sometimes he's bad as the Devil himself. It's like, he cannot decide whether he wants to be a good boy or a bad boy. I have changed my tactics since the last time I wrote.

This time, I have decided to use the "Surprise you till you change" tactic. I have narrowed down the possible cause for his misbehaviors to 'lack of personal one-on-one attention". So, what I did was this: I would surprise him with my attention whenever I can, whenever he is not expecting me to. Like when he is downstairs watching TV while I reply some emails, I would prance downstairs and pounce on him like Tigger would and hug him breathless. I whisper, "I love you, Josh. Do you love me?". Corny? Sure, but it works.

Me    : Do you want fishball for dinner, Josh?
Josh : Urm, yes
Me    : Oops, we don't have fishball, Josh. How about chicken wings instead?
Josh  : Urm, yes.
Me    : Do you want your dinner in your purple plate or your red one?
Josh : Urm, yes.

Of course, to cut him some slack, being an angel and agreeing is a lot of hard work and he reverts to his angry and disagreeable self sometimes. Along the way, he lost his ability to wake up to go to the toilet too.

I am desperately wondering, "Should I get him back into diapers or training pants?". Is it normal for a boy like him (3-years-old) to go back to wetting himself at night after doing so well for a month or so?

Actually, I already bought the ringside tickets to DISNEY ON ICE show supposed to come around end of this month or beginning of May 2003 but because of the SARS issue, the shows has been cancelled. Initially, I was thinking of taking only Josh with me because:-

a. ringside tickets costs me a lung, a heart and two kidneys
b. Jared would probably hate the lights and the ice.

Ah well, have to return the tickets and get them before they come around the next time, then. By that time, Jared would be old enough to appreciate the show and I would need to get an EXTRA ticket for the person I can coerce into going with me to the show. Hey, I need an extra hand to keep two kids occupied.

Let's just hope that by that time, Josh is less temperamental and Jared has learnt how not to breastfeed whenever.

:: Marsha ::