Saturday, February 27, 2010 ;
10:21 PM
Today, Sat, I was with the 3 kids at home the whole day again, without any other adult companion.
I had the stroller ready, wanted to bring them all downstairs for some outdoor time but it was simply too hot. Just stepping out of the apt to hang some thick towels to sun, and to dry ds1's washed school shoes was enough to convince me not to go out. It was so sweltering hot.
So we cooped ourselves in the house the whole day. Mom and mil don't usually come during the weekends. Mom and dad usually return to Malaysia. Mil is busy with her own stuff. It was ok, cos I didn't bother to cook, just did some loads of laundry, and took care of the kids in general.
I did manage to play a round of Blokus with them. How come I always lose nowadays? ds1 won. Either I am too sleep deprived or I was careless. I refuse to believe that my brain capacity/ capability is declining. I am losing rounds and rounds of Chinese chess to ds1 as well.
Decided to post because I noticed a lot more things the kids do by themselves that I haven't listed. Perhaps it'll be good for me to make a record, just like how their baby milestones were recorded.
Other stuff they do on their own now:
- choose and change their clothes (underwear, socks, shoes included)
- sort laundry and fold them (only when I tell them to help me, cos if I can help it, I rather do it myself, when I am running short of time)
- take showers by themselves (shampoo hair, soap body then rinse, and then dry themselves)
- brush teeth
- sleep
- pour water
- spread bread to make sandwich, or pour milk and get cereal for breakfast
- water the plants
- crack open peanuts to eat
- vacuum the floor
- clean up after themselves after a meal (eg wipe up stains, pick up food debris on the floor, put bowls in sink, rinse a cup simply)
- ds1 - wash school shoes
- both - pack school bag
- ds1 - do homework and learn spelling (incl know what is on list of spelling and which day it will be tested)
- ds1 - come home from bus stop by himself
- ds1- buy food by himself, order and pay for stuff
- read story books, do activity books
- surf net, play DVD, call me or Dh on the phone, pick up phone and relay message from caller
- sit on the church pew during worship service by themselves and fill in his sermon sheet (ds1), read the picture Bible (ds2), and sing hymns from the hymn book etc (cos I am at home with dd, and Dh was serving) [I heard, many others did sit with them and try to help them when they had difficulty getting the verses down but I was glad that most of them reported that the boys behaved themselves without us by their side.]
- this last one I can think of happened today, as I was in the toilet.
dd was sleeping soundly, so I thought it was safe to use the bathroom for an extended period of time. Just as I was halfway through, dd woke up and started crying. It escalated to wailing. ds1 and ds2 were playing magic cards in the study then. I started to panic and desperately tried to hurry myself. Then I heard ds1 and ds2 run to the room and hop onto the bed. They started calling out to dd. She cried less loudly, and actually stopped for a while.
When I emerged from the bathroom, I saw ds1 holding her, stroking her cheek, while ds2 was singing a lullaby to her and telling her not to cry. I was so touched.
It's great to have kids who have grown up. Let me not take these words back when they reach teenhood, or maybe tweenhood..
rainbows every day, do not worry for the morrow
____________________________________________________________
