I'm a full-time mummy

Since last year, whenever Christmas time is approaching, my brother in law's best friend will send over his maid to our place for a few days. This is because his mum is going for her year-end holiday and hence, they decided to let the maid stays with us temporarily (rather than leaving the maid alone in the house)

For 2010's Christmas, my MIL cooked extra portion of food for the maid (her name is Adriana) during her temporary stay at our place and Adriana helps out with cleaning our place, mopping the floor and hanging our laundry. She was around when we celebrated Christmas that year and we gave her a Christmas present too!

For 2011 Christmas, Adriana is back for 5 days and during these few days, she tagged along to a few of our family outings. I'm writing this post to share of my experience of having a maid:

Household Chores

Like what she did in 2010, this time, she helps out with mopping our floors, hanging our laundry and I found her cleaning our fridge door's too one early morning!

Taking Care of Children

Personally, I do not like other people than my family members hold or touches my child. At one point during a family dinner, someone passed Alyson to Adriana (I was feeding Ben that time) and when I realised she was carrying Alyson, I panicked and was upset too at the person who passed my daughter to Adriana. I am not being judgemental or anything, my own mothering instincts just tells me to not let other people touches my child. I immediately got my husband to feed Ben and carried back Alyson.

Companion for the Old Folks

I can hear Adriana chatting and listening to my MIL's talking during her short stay at our place. I think she can make a good companion for old folks.

No More Privacy

Seriously, I feel very awkward having another person around the house, and even during my family outing. It's just plain weird and uneasy. At times I pitied her for not understanding what is happening around the family or what we are planning to do, but at times I also have to worry about her getting lost or couldn't find us and so on while we were out shopping (last minute Christmas shopping)

In summary, as much as I am truly grateful for her help around the house during her short stay here, in terms of our own family privacy, I would prefer not to have a maid around us. Maybe if we really do have a maid, I'll prefer if she just stays and accompanies my MIL and doing the household chores.

Any matters related to child care or my children, I will be responsible for that and not the maid. I personally cannot imagine how I can pass my children to a maid to take care. I feel very weird and uneasy having another person tagging along with us during our family outing.

I have seen at church service for example, how parents leave their children while they attend the service. I've seen maids chasing the children around, trying to feed them, or trying to clean up the children's mess. 

I've been horrified at not once, but twice, experiencing and seeing with my own eyes how a young child (maybe less than 2 years old) terrorising the baby room while the maid just sit at the corner, texting and fidgeting with her mobile phone. The young boy puts his food in the dustbin, takes out garbage and plays with it, takes people's shoes from the shoe rack and tries them on and leave the shoes (even mine!) all around, pulls down the shoe racks, goes after other kids' foods etc etc.

I feel a parent should be caring for their child, not the maid.

Anyway, this is just my own opinions about my experience of having a maid during her short stay with us. As of now, although at most times it is hectic to care and pay attention to a hyperactive boy and a cheeky and fussy baby girl, I think I can make it without relying on a maid still.

I wrote a post 1 year ago about what I did in 2010 that I'm proud of so I figured I should continue this 'tradition' for 2011 as well! Here goes (in no particular order):

* Bought myself an iPad & ventured into iPad app reviews

I finally bought myself an iPad so I could read my e-books at night after everyone's asleep and one of the factors for buying the iPad is also my plan to use iPad as a teaching tool for Ben. I'm very happy with this purchase and I'm proud of owning it too!

 * Finally making use of my blog to earn side income by accepting sponsored posts and ads

I started blogging when I became a SAHM in June 2009 and it took me 2 years before I decided to make use of my blog to earn  some side income. I ventured into sponsored posts and hosting ads on my blog since middle of June 2011 and although the income is not a lot, I am thankful for every bit of it as I earned money while doing something I like, which is blogging!

 * Potty training Ben when I was in my last trimester of pregnancy & coming up with the BE AWESOME approach

I started potty training Ben in my last trimester of pregnancy and although it is very tiring (imagine running while you are 8 to 9 months pregnant to the potty everytime Ben says he wants to pee!). From this adventure, I also coined up the BE AWESOME approach while potty training Ben!

 * Breastfeeding during pregnancy

Heck... even getting pregnant while still breastfeeding is shocking enough for people around my circles! What more, breastfeeding during pregnancy! Anyway, I am proud that I am able to accomplish this as there are a lot of nursing mums out there who have to wean their nursling when they found out they are pregnant. I did a lot of research and bought a couple of books on tandem nursing and breastfeeding through pregnancy and realised that I could continue breastfeeding Ben as there are no complications during my 1st pregnancy. Of course, if there are any risks encountered during the 2nd pregnancy, I will wean but thank God, there's none and although my breastmilk stops at 5th month into my pregnancy, Ben still nurses on right up until I delivered Alyson!

 * Family outing right up to delivery

With Benjamin, I have no problem exercising since I  could walk to and fro places during working hours but with Alyson, I thought, "Hey, I'm at home all the time and I really need some form of exercise!" so for my 2nd pregnancy, we went out for family outings A LOT! I think partly also to make Ben feels he is still part of the family and mummy and daddy still loves him very much and we want to have the memories of the 3 of us going out as much as possible too! Though I keep telling people and myself I need to slow down and reduce the family outing as my due date approaches, I just can't walk the talk!

* Natural birth with no episiotomy or pain relief

With Ben, I delivered naturally but required episiotomy and as pain relief, I used the Enthonox or laughing gas. For Alyson's birth, again, I delivered naturally, this time no episiotomy at all and though I wanted to use the Enthonox again, I could only hold the gas mask for less than 5 seconds before it was taken away from me and I was told to push right away (I was 8cm when I got wheeled into the labor room so there's no time to use the gas mask anyway)!

 * Tandem Nursing!

I initially had nursing aversion when we brought Alyson home and Ben started asking for his nen-nen (breastmilk). I wrote a couple of posts on my tandem nursing experience, the struggles and how I cope with it, surviving it, and how it goes along at 3 months after that. I'm happy to report that we're still tandem nursing (4 months now!) though Ben is down to 1 feeding daily, which is at night before his bedtime. I am happy still to know I am still able to nourish BOTH my child at the same time! Imagine nursing a 34 months old boy and a 4 months old girl!

 * Continue to help some friends, even strangers in the matters of baby care, breastfeeding and so on

Yes, even while I am busy with my 2 kids, blogging and doing product reviews, I do spare some time helping my friends, bloggy  pals or strangers. Whatever topics I get asked on, be it breastfeeding, pregnancy, baby care, product reviews, making use of blog to earn money, and so on, I am happy and proud to say I have been able to share my experience with other mums and friends all around.

 * Became Mum Center blog partner

I became a Mum Center blog partner somewhere in late July 2011 after I received an email offer from them. I don't have to do anything other than my usual blogging, what they do is they will select random posts from my blog and post them on their website and include a link to my blog. Good for me I guess as I hope it drives more traffic to my blog!

 * Finally paid someone to redesign my blog head

Yes, yes, after moving over to my own domain, I finally paid someone to redesign my blog header! After scouring around the Internet looking for good and affordable rates for someone to redesign my blog header, I finally found the right designer and it is very very affordable that I paid the guy 3 times the amount he asked for! I think his work deserves so much more! I love my new blog header so much!

So there you go, a list of things I did in 2011 that I am proud of! I hope to be able to achieve greater things be it in my blogging or parenting. I wish the same for you all out there and thank you so much for your support and following through my blog in 2011!

2011 is coming to an end so fast! This year is filled with bittersweet memories and I would like to showcase my favorite posts for each month in 2011.

If you are just visiting my blog or is a new follower, I hope you will spare a couple of minutes to check out these posts of mine. So here it goes:

• January 2011 - Seriously... Ranting out my thoughts on people who assumes just because I'm a SAHM, it means I get to rest the whole day at home...
• February 2011 - I announced to everyone that we are expecting!
• March 2011 - Ben turns 2 years old in this month and I compiled 24 pictures of him (from each month of his life). I really like this post!
  
• April 2011 - This is the post with Youtube videos of my toddler saying the 'F' word!
  
• May 2011 - Veni, Vidi, Vici! A post of our family outing to Penang!
  
• June 2011 - Sharing a bittersweet post of my heart being torn apart...
  
• July 2011 - Sharing a post of my journey as a breastfeeding mother!
  
• August 2011 - I coined up the BE AWESOME approach in potty training Ben!
  
• September 2011 - I gave birth to Alyson this month! Read about my 2nd supernatural childbirth!
  
• October 2011 - During this month, I shared on how I survived my tandem nursing aversion...
  
• November 2011 - Alyson's prolonged jaundice ended when she turned 2 months old!
  
• December 2011 - I shared a tutorial on how we made our awesome ribbon Christmas tree! Come and check it out!
  

Thank you for reading and wish you a blessed year ahead!

* This post is in participation of Mama Kat's Writer Workshop