Scenes from a Married Life: Genetics

It is bedtime and it's all dark in our bedroom.  We're all snuggled up and Dear Hubby has his hand on my belly, stroking it.  It's his way of saying goodnight to Number Two every night.

"I wonder if he'll come out looking like Connor and me... all dark hair and dark eyes or if he'll be blond and blue-eyed and fit his Danish name... what do you think?"

There is a long silence in the darkness.

Then comes my husband's voice.

"I have brown hair and hazel eyes.  If he comes out blond and blue-eyed, I will be asking you Very Serious Questions."

Mummy 101: Helping your child with shoes

Connor has a pair of Columbia hiking boots that he usually wears to school.  They are lovely shoes, perfect for Scottish rural life but unfortunately the left shoe looks very similar to the right shoe.  There aren't any obvious external markers on the shoes to indicate to a child which is which e.g. straps or a cartoon character on the side which might show a child which foot the shoe goes on.

I used to get super-annoyed with Connor for putting on the wrong shoe on the wrong foot especially as he tends to do so when we're rushing to/from school.  But looking back, I couldn't really blame him as even I had probs telling the right shoe apart from its partner.

One day, I had a Mummy Lightbulb Moment.

I was marking all his school belongings with his name when it hit me.

What I did was after writing his name on the clothing tags, I simply added in an "L" on the inside of the left shoe.  The right shoe got the letter "R".   So now Connor has a clear visual clue which shoe goes on which foot.

Guess what?

He's never put the wrong shoe on the wrong foot since.  Not only that, it helps with reading... "L.... L is for left!"

Why didn't I think of it earlier?  Now all his school shoes are labelled with his name AND the letters L/R.  We've never had a problem with putting on shoes ever since.

Number Two Pregnancy: 35 weeks and almost there

About a month more and we'll have another little man in the house.   I am now 35 weeks pregnant.

I have gained a LOT of weight.  Like 40lbs of it.  Sigh.  I don't walk now.   I waddle.  Just like Donald Duck and geng.  Cukup hilang vogue.  

Number Two is quite feisty compared to his older brother who was more easygoing in utero.  See, Number Two doesn't like ANY sort of pressure on the belly.  If I rest my hand or anything else on the belly, he's very quick to respond with a sharp poke.  "Oi," he's saying.  "Get off."  If I don't move, he'll poke it a few more times.  Like "I'm warning you."   If I still don't move, that's it.  He'll land a series of sharp kicks and/or pokes until the offending object is removed.  It's quite amusing to realise that a sentient, conscious being is actually inside me... it's actually a little person who has already formed some likes and dislikes.  It's not just a blob.

Sometimes when he moves, it feels like a little hand scraping my insides.  Like he's trying to part the curtains and peer out.  It's quite a weird feeling.  Not quite yet, Number Two... a few more weeks to go yet!  Don't you dare come out now!

Connor is having fun playing with my belly.  For some reason, he thinks my belly button is THE conduit to the baby.  So he talks directly into it to the baby and when he wants to tickle the baby, he will blow directly onto it.  The first time he experienced the baby kicking him back was just fantastic.  Connor just lit up. "Mummy, the baby kicked me!" and he laughed so hard at it all.

I'm a little nervous at the thought of having to handle two children.  Yes, I'm more experienced this time and I know what to expect.  But this knowledge is scaring me a little because now I know.  I remember how tired I was in Jakarta with Connor and that was with a maid doing all the housework on my behalf.  God knows how I'm going to cope with the housework AND Connor AND the baby here all on my own.

Oh well.  I guess I'll find out in about a month's time!

Schooling in Scotland: Connor's Technology homework

Connor's Technology pack homework:  (L-R, clockwise) Instruction sheet for model, list of items in the pack, Learning Outcome sheet, book, model kit, parent feedback form

Well, as promised, here's a sample of the homework packs that we receive at school and that Connor can expect to be doing throughout Primary 1. 

This week's pack is titled "Technology" and came with a kit to make a motorbike.  Tell you what, it wasn't easy to make it and I don't see how a 4yo with limited attention span such as my son could be expected to complete it on his own.  If it had been a Duplo set, I think it would have been more appropriate.  This one had screws and washers and god knows what else.  The parent is supposed to guide and offer pointers but let the child do most of it.  Well, I ended up doing most of it myself!   Maybe it'll be better for him in a year's time.

Connor loved the book though.  It's a simple book about how forces help things work.  For example, we push the pedals of a bike to make it move and we pull the oars to row a boat.  He can read simple words so he enjoyed the reading bit. He'd taught himself phonics off some app I downloaded onto the iPad.  When I tried the app, I thought it was the dreariest thing on earth.  But Connor loved it and played with it everyday and the next thing you know, he can sound out words phonetically and read the simple ones.  I was amazed, considering that at this same time last year he had been diagnosed with a speech delay and was undergoing speech therapy.

So there you go, a sample of what we get at school here in Scotland.