Days are long and utopian, and filled with such luxuriant richness and beautiful lavishness to be able to witness for myself those little idiosyncracies of my Bees for 24 hours. Having no work stress also means I am a more tolerant mother, being able to endure their frequent rivalry and catfights a bit better, injecting more patience into parenting them - although I still feel like tearing my hair out when faced with a whole morning of complaints and petty quarrels!
Fatigue will definitely exist when I have to pander to their multifarious needs constantly, but if fatigue is blended with happiness to be doing the things that matter most, our bodies become a lot more resilient and receptive. I hope my children grow old to understand that working is merely a means to an end for me, and that I really revel in the joys of parenting them!
Dec 10 and 11 were also fun days for my cousins and me. Since Fio's mum and mine were out exploring the world, we decided to hang out together with Irene who happened to be on leave too! What fantastic timing!
Val and Little Bee spent an idyllic morning on Dec 10 at my house while Big Bee was out for holiday classes, focusing their attention on pretend play. This time, they were owners of a restaurant, and were busy cooking and serving us! I hope they grow up to cook delicious dishes for us :)
We then picked Big Bee up before adjourning to West Mall for a sinful but scrumptious lunch of KFC, with the kids gobbling down whipped potato and chicken pieces! Big Bee had regained her appetite, now that school was out - wolfing down 2 big chicken pieces and 2 bowls of whipped potato! I am very pleased to see her being so happy and carefree again.
Val and Little Bee all ready to fetch Big Bee, who incidentally, is Val's idol for now :)
The Bees continued to indulge in their favourite painting after Val had gone home...followed by an afternoon of relaxed play at Gong Gong's house.
On Dec 11, we had a delightful dinner at my house, with homecooked beehoon and curry chicken, as well as yummy stingray, satays and satay beehoon that Eric so kindly bought. As the kids played, us 3 cousins sat around the table munching and gorging on the food, idly chatting away. Life felt great!
Bubble play before dinner. The Bees went berserk when I gave them permission to dabble with bubbles, much to the shock of sensible Chloe and Val!
Without planning, Chloe and Little Bee had the same colour combination! Together with similar hairstyles, don't you think they look like twin sisters?!
The Bees' bedroom was tranformed into a playroom!
We cousins had a marvelous time, and I am sure the little ones enjoyed their bonding sessions with their cousins as well. In this era of small nuclear families, cousins are close family members akin to siblings, and I am really happy to see the Bees having an entire brood of extended cousins they can call family!
2 comments:
"work is only a a means to an end that we want" - best advice a friend gave me.
Candice: I agree fully. It is just so true, isn't it? These days, whenever I feel stressed up at work, I chant this mantra to myself :)
Post a Comment