Chubbs turns 20-months on the second Mothers' Day that I'm celebrating. Cool. I planned a dim sum lunch for my M-I-L, together with the extended family, Fuzzy's aunts and grandaunts, at NUSS' Chinese restaurant.
"Feeding" Daddy.
"Feeding" Mommy.
Mommy feeding Chubbs.
The dim sum was fabulous, as usual, and so were the noodle dishes, even though the seasoning wasn't so spot on. The rice noodles were too bland, and the duck ee-fu noodles were too salty :( But the redeeming factor was that the texture and consistency of the noodles were flawless. There was only one bad in the meal. The Peking duck. Instead of just serving the duck skin in the crepes, the carver left chunks of fat and meat in as well. It was rather awful, and the skin was not crisp at all. Plus, they forgot to serve the all-important cucumber and spring onion strips that accompany the duck crepes. Not good. Lesson learnt... I'll just stick to dim sum when dining there from now on.
Using the foldable umbrella as a walking stick after lunch.
I'll spare you guys my expected blabber about how great it's been, being Chubbs' Mommy for the past 20-months. Reality is... this is a really tough job despite all its perks. Discipline is the biggest issue now, as he's pushing two years old. I understand that they want control, and want to do things their way. I mean, who doesn't? I try to give him autonomy as much as I can. But there are things we don't budge on. Like putting his toys away after he's done playing, eating his meals when it's time to, not playing with electrical appliances, etc. My goal in disciplining is for him to learn to listen and obey, because if he doesn't, he could be putting himself in danger. The other day, he stuck his hand in a fan that was left on when his Tai-Gong was not in the room. I screamed for him to stop what he was doing, and he didn't. I had to dash over and save his fingers. And I have witnessed too many children shrugging off their parents to run across the road with cars fast approaching. These incidents really put a stamp on how important discipline is. Chubbs needs to know how to listen and obey. Right now, we are still figuring out which discipline methods work on Chubbs, and which don't. It's no easy feat and it is truly vexing.
Dear unsuspecting reader, I'm sorry you had to endure this outpouring of motherhood trouble. But it's not all that awful. Chubbs is getting more adorable and much cheekier each day. He has taken a firm interest in singing and in particular, listening to Andrea Bocelli. I was telling my friend, S, this story when a few days back... It started a few months ago, when we played him a clip of Bocelli singing a lullaby to Elmo. And then we showed him the recording of a concert where Bocelli sang "Con te Partiro" with Sarah Brightman. He sat transfixed; Chubbs was hooked from that point on. He makes me sing the tune to him, while playing the piano too many times a day, and he has to watch the clip at least once before he sleeps every night. He recognises Bocelli's name too, and will "hold a mic" and sing at the mere mention him.
I love you, my little Chubbs. Thank you for each day that you tell me, "Bah-bu Mommy."
