Now, Koppie Papa, can you beat that?

While I have to admit the push factor is a strong contributor to my decision, I also firmly belief it’s all in God’s will. From going for the interview, to accepting the job offer, I’ve been granted with a deep sense of peace which can only come from the Lord.

This contrast from the 2 other near-job offers I had previously.

With the first one, strangely, I did not like the working hours and the office location. It surprised myself as I have always thought such considerations were only of concern to people of entry level positions. But it did matter to me because having to start work too early means I would then have to rush my kids through the morning routine, and perhaps not be able to drop Yu off at school personally. Next.

The second near-offer was highly tempting. Not only was it a career advancement (a regional marketing role), it was also in the very "sexy" business of asthetic pharmaceuticals. But it had one drawback, and that was the amount of travelling I would have to do. Although Koppie Papa was supportive, I knew where my priorities were. Being present for my family was of utmost importance to me. So, after 3 rounds of interviews, I had to say "no" to the headhunter.

Then came the 3rd job opportunity, which I had little interest in at first. But after one round of face-to-face interview, the interest level went up. It fitted the bill of what I was looking for – no travelling, pro-family workplace and a good pay package – and MORE! I can only say the Lord has been good & faithful, as always!!!

So here I am now, serving my 3 weeks notice with the present company. It’s the festive season, with hardly any people or action going on in the office. A good time to chart directions for myself for the coming year. It will be truely New Year, New Start for me when 2011 begins. I can’t wait.

In our conversation, the topic of engagement to the company came up. This lady, a mother of a sweet little girl about Yu’s age, questioned the level of my engagement to the company. She claimed her day at work finishes at 9 or 10pm many nights due to frequent teleconversations with the US. That, according to her, is “engagement”. And she came across to me as being quite proud that she was sacrificing her pesonal time for the company. In her own words, she was “going that extra mile” for the company.

I pondered over her words after that conversation, and could not help but feel really sorry for her little girl. As I rolled around in my bed with my 2 boys that night, I wondered if the little girl was being put to bed by her maid, or her “engaged” mother?

In contrast, something PM Lee Hsien Loong said in his National Day Rally speech in 2008 made a lasting impression on me. And I quote him:

“…Do you work 110 per cent on your career or do you set aside time for other activities, for a balanced life? I think each person has to decide his or her own point of balance.

I remember my own experience. I’m a beneficiary of this. My mother was a lawyer. But every day she came home to have lunch with us. So every day we come home from school, three of us, my mother is there, we have lunch. Nowadays you would call it quality time. This was before people invented such big words. All it meant was she had time for us, we had time to talk to her.

And it was a tremendous help. She avoided going out at night for functions. She had to go for, accompany my father, but business functions, very seldom. What it meant is less takings as a lawyer, less work, less conveyancing, but she decided her children were more important to her. And she acted on that and I think she was happy with that. And we’re definitely very grateful for that.”

As I write this post, news of Mrs Lee Kuan Yew’s death has hit the media and tribute to this amazing and well-respected lady is pouring in. But way before that, I’ve come to regard her as a role model for working mothers like myself. I truely admire and wish to have the kind of success she has with raising her children and in keeping house.

Admittedly, it is because of the above quote that I decided to scale myself back on my career and give my children my priority. It does not matter whether my sons will grow up to be grateful to me for that, but I am sure I have made the right decision to engage myself with the people that really matter – my sons and my husband!

No regrets!

(This post was originally intended to be entitled “On Engagement”. But half way through it, Mrs Lee Kuan Yew, wife of MM Lee, passed away and I decided to change the title as my way of paying tribute to her.)

No fault of his. Mine rather, for I had fallen asleep next to him before putting his diapers on for him.

In the last couple of months, Yu has refused to allow me to wear a diaper on him at bedtime. “It’s so hot and itchy”, he protested.

I’ve tried changing his brand of disposables to a more premium and comfy one, with pictures of little Disney characters on them. It didn’t work.

I’ve tried putting his diapers on for him only when he is fast asleep. It works only occasionally. And on those occasions when it didn’t, I’ve had to stay up all night trying to put on the diaper, only to have him yank it off again and again!

I am now going to try the Bumwear cloth diapers, once I get the chance to go to the store at United Square. My fingers, and toes, are firmly crossed.

On a brighter note, little Yue, at 16 months, has surprised us all with his sudden ability to communicate his elimination needs.

It usually happens towards the end of a meal, when he would make a face and utter, “poo poo”. My domestic helper would then rush him to the toilet bowl, and he would do his business.

He has been accident-free for the last 1 week or so.

Oh, Yue, Mama is so proud of you!

Yu : Mama, are you pregnant?

Mama : No

Yu : But your tummy is so big. Is a baby going to come out from there?

Mama : No, there is no baby coming out of my tummy.

Yu : Is it because it is not fertilised?

Mama : Yes, it was not fertilised.

Later on in the evening, as I related the conversation to Papa, Yu listened in and again asked, “Is it because the egg was not fertilised? Was there egg yolk and egg white?”

I think we got quite far with our 1st lesson on Reproduction 101.

It sometimes blows my mind where my boy learns new words from. Even more funny is the context in which he sometimes apply such newly acquired vocabulary.

I recall not too long ago, while lying on the bed with him one day, he pointed to the mole on left cheek and went, “Mama, I like your mole. It is so small and cute, and squidgy.”

I broke out into uncontrollable laughter. No One, not even Papa in the days when he was fervently (ahem!) courting Mama, has ever refered to the little mole on my cheek as small and cute!

Later on, I googled “squidgy” and found out it means “soft and can be squashed easily”. I really wonder where he learned this word from, and what context, aside from describing moles, has he used it in.

But one thing I know, this boy is unlikely to be at a loss for words when he needs a funny pick-up line some 20 years down the road.

"If dried grapes are called raisins,
then wet raisins are called grapes."

Smarty pants.

When I showed him my newly bought Oral B electic toothbrush, he was very keen to play with it, so much so that he got adventurous enough to put it into his mouth. After that, as the saying goes, it was history!

My boy now brushes his teeth whenever prompted. Not often enough, but that’s more a fault of Mama’s then his.

People
- Mama
- Papa
- Ah Ma
- Ge Ge / Kor
- Che Che

Animals
-mao (cat in Mandarin. Then again, all furry animals are mao-mao to him!)
- bird
- horse
- fish

Objects
- ball ball
- car
- neh neh (for milk)
- bread (as in from ginger bread man)
- Ka-ka (that’s what he calls hair, especially mama’s, which is all over te floor every morning!)

Two-syllabus words
- No More (with hand gesture thrown in!)
- Button
- zebra
- giraff
- baby
- balloon (which he pronounces as Ber-yoon)
- garlic

Check out Ge ge’s developmental milestone on speech here.