I'm a full-time mummy

I admit my tempers can easily flared up.. especially when I haven't eaten anything (happens quite a number of times) or when I'm trying to rush up things like paying online bills, rushing quotations/invoices/POs for hubby's business (I don't like to delay or leave things till last minute)...

And with a toddler now, I do find that one of the things I learned from Ben is: PATIENCE...

Hmm... or like this quote says:

"You can learn many things from children.  How much patience you have, for instance.  ~Franklin P. Jones"

Yup... take this picture below for example...

See my handsome and playful little man there happily riding his ride-on car, maneuvering amidst the trails of Mega Bloks destruction all around our bedroom floor. Maybe to you it's just a couple of block toys all over the floor, but being kind of the everything-must-be-in-its-place person, it looks like a disaster site to me.

Given normal circumstances, I would have happily just play along, pushing the blocks away from his path and cheering him on... but when situations are critical which makes my anger flares up, I would be either screaming to myself (inside my head of course!) and/or scolding Ben.

After reading a few awesome parenting books (Zig Ziglar's "Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World" and Dr. Jenn Berman's "SuperBaby"), I realised that children learns by observing their parents. What we do is what they will do.

So yes, as much as I hate to admit I have this weakness of tempers being easily flared up at particular situations, I do realised that I have to and am in the process of learning to be more patience... for the sake of my child.

So nowadays, when I see my little man with all his toys everywhere, I'll take a deep breath, tell myself this is nothing, don't get angry, just relax and join in the fun... and then when we're done, I'll teach him to clean up his toys and make sure the room is neat and tidy again. Read this quote below:

"You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing.  What!  Is it nothing to be happy?  Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long?  Never in his life will he be so busy again.  ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762"

I mean, why fuss so much with the mess when you see your child enjoying so much while playing? Right? And to that, I leave you with a Chinese proverb  and an inspirational quote to ponder about:

"One moment of patience may ward off great disaster.  One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life.  ~Chinese Proverb"

(*Image taken from Google search)

I am continuing on with my reading on the "Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World" book from Zig Ziglar (I love love love this book!) and I would like to share this part (in red font) where Ziglar mentioned the following:

"A solid foundation for children involves a solid moral base. Parents who teach their children honesty but fail to practise it themselves create real problems. For example, suppose parents repeatedly tell their children to be truthful, but when the telephone rings, they call out to the child who's answering it, "Tell them I'm not home." The message to the child is clear. If children are taught to lie for parents, they are taught to lie to parents."

Think about it. Of course Ben is not at the age of answering calls or even talking properly yet, but what I'm trying to get the message across is, to raise a child with solid moral base, we as parents have to walk the talk first.

"As another example, suppose parents lecture their children on the importance of obeying the law, yet install a radar detector in the car to evade being stopped for speeding. The message again is clear. It you're going to break the law, don't get caught. Be smart like your dad or mom."

Are you starting to worry about what your child is learning from you? Whether consciously or subconsciously?

For me, everytime I'm deciding on something, I think "How am I going to answer to God if I decide this or that?" and then I think of "How will it affect my loved ones around?" and whether I could sleep through the night if I take this or that decision.

Think about it.. I will continue sharing the excerpts from the book if I happened to come across any that I find worth sharing with you guys. Have a nice day!

Whoaaa... check out who just got himself a new pool!

We were out grocery shopping at Tesco yesterday night and saw this cute little pool and decided to get it for Ben because:

Since we couldn't find the air pump, hubby and I had to take turn to blow up the pool ourselves. Once it's done, we proceeded to bring it out to the balcony and give it a good rinse to clean it up before getting Ben to fill it up with water.

Check out the snapshots of Ben below...

And then I proceeded to snap the view of Ben in the pool from the top...

Ben played in the pool for a long time and refused to get out! I had to promise him we'll play again later in the afternoon in order to get him out of the pool (it was getting windy outside so I thought better stop and bath Ben). My little man is fast asleep now as I'm typing this post. Guess he's real tired with all the playing hahaha...

What a nice way to enjoy the weekend, huh?

Here's wishing you guys a wonderful weekend too!