I confess that it broke my heart to do it, but I had to.
Mr T and I were sound asleep when all of a sudden, in the still of the night, the Little Man said, "HOLD HANDS, MUMMY!".
I kept very still, hoping that he was just talking in his sleep.
And then it happened again. Those three words sounded in the quiet of the night.
Not wanting to wake up Mr T and create a scene in that unearthly hour, I did as I was told! I pulled the Little Man's cot nearer to my side of the bed and held his adorable little hand in between the cot railings. The Little Man gave it a squeeze and said "Good night, Mummy. I love you.". My heart melted as I thought that was rather sweet of the Little Man ... showing his affection and appreciation for his Loyal Servant. That is, until he continued to insist that I hold his hand through the night! It was a rather ackward position as I had to hold his right hand with my left hand through the little gaps of the cot railing. So as soon as I thought that he had fallen back to sleep, I slowly released my grip only to be firmly told "HOLD HANDS, MUMMY!".
This happened over and over and again until it became increasingly ridiculous to have to lose my much needed sleep over a 30 month old Little Man insisting to hold hands through the night. Still, I did not have the heart to reprimand him in the still of the night, for fear of wounding his pride and of course, I did not want to evoke any feelings of jealousy with my loyal husband who was sleeping next to me. I compromised by holding just one little finger before we fell deep asleep again ... until now, I am still unsure who fell back to dreamland again that night.
The next evening, as I was chatting to my dear Mama and updating her on what her daughter and grandchildren were up to north of the Causeway, my dearest Mama cracked up laughing when told of the Little Man's antics the night before. When it came to the Little Man's turn to talk to his Po-Po, his Po-Po dispensed her grandmotherly advice to him about not disturbing Mummy and Daddy at night. The dutiful and obedient grandson took heed to the grandmotherly advice and that night and for a few more nights therafter, the Little Man slept through the night with no more hanky-panky.
Since that episode, Mr T and I have stuck to the same routine every night, whereby I leave the bedroom first after singing the Barney "I love you, you love me" song, and then exchanging our goodnight kisses and hugs, telling the Little Man that "Mummy has to wash all the dirty clothes, then Mummy will come back up to sleep. Jing Fong sleep first, okay.". Often the Little Man would reply to lament that he is sweating despite the air-conditioner being on as well as the fan! My standard reply, accompanied by a smile and a nod: "Jing Fong is a big boy. Jing Fong turn your pillow around yourself.". That usually does the trick before I run off for some ME time, albeit after sorting out the dirty laundry!
After a couple of minutes, Mr T then tells the Little Man that "Daddy has to go and wash your milk bottle, Jing Fong is a good boy...sleep first, then Daddy will come and sleep later". The big Little Man's standard reply to this Daddy is "Good night, Daddy. Off all the lights.". Occasionally, the Little Man will try and bargain with his Daddy for a few more minutes of 'together-time' by giving lame excuses ... need to shhh-shhh..., poo-poo, sweating...", but his Daddy is always able to immediately put a stop to it on those occasions.
So that is how Mr T and I managed to train the Little Man to go to sleep by himself at the ripe old age of 31 months! Not quite a text-book kind of way, but it worked out well without distressing the little kiddo.
Fast forward to a month later in August...
After finishing my nightly chores, I crept quietly into my bedroom for my nightly bathroom routine as my two favourite men lay fast asleep. As I was flossing my teeth, I suddenly heard a little voice going "Ehh..Mummy...where Mummy?". As I peeped out of the bathroom, I saw the Little Man half-standing, pointing to my side of the bed and asking himself the all important question "eh..why Mummy not there one?". When the Little Man spotted me peeping out of the bathroom, he then self-declared "Oh, Mummy finish doing clothes, read newspapers, d". I gave the irresistable Little Man a kiss and said Good Night to him. He returned to his sleeping position and off he went to dreamland again. Unbelievable. I did wonder to myself whether he had been pretending to be asleep for the last hour, or if he was sleep-talking before concluding that his senses were just too highly sensitive to the smells and movements of his Loyal Servant.
The Little Man IS growing up really fast.
Surrounded by his 3 sisters, his aunts, grandparents and all that activity that keeps our home buzZ, buzZ, buzZing everyday, he picks up words from all of us very quickly and is quite a genius at mimicking our actions. Recently, his sisters received a letter each from Po-Po. The envelope was addressed to Princess No. 3, who then delivered the respective letters to Sister No. 1 and Sister No. 2. As she was in the process of doing so, the Little Man clearly did not want to feel left out. He pleaded to his Sister No. 3 "Ching Tom also want letter from Po-Po, can? Can San Jie?". I am still unsure whether he knew exactly what this exchange of letters with Po-Po was about; he just did not want to feel left out. When I later related this to my dearest Mama, she quickly got to work and sent the Little Man a letter stuck with pictures of racing cars and a bull-dozer on it!
A little more than a month ago, I received word from one of the kindergarten teachers that the Little Genius has apparently not been completing her Maths homework. Tiger Mum here got all upset and reprimanded the Little Genius in the car on the way home from kindie. When we alighted from the car, the Little Genius appeared to stand frozen at the door-way. I pretended not to notice as I was not about to coax her after my reprimand session. Instead, I spotted the Little Man quietly telling his San Jie "Come, Ching Tom hold your hand, k?" and proceeded to lovingly hold her hand ever so lightly to lead her into the house.
Upon returning from dinner at GrandPa's house a couple of weeks ago, I was about to alight from the car when I asked the Little Man to help me carry the clean kitchen rags and hand-towels (that MIL's maid had helped me wash) down from the car. My instructions were very clear: "Please help Mummy take these cloths inside". The Little Man happily took the cloths from me and entered the Zoo. As I entered the Zoo, I was distracted by the usual whines of the Whining Queen. As soon as I settled her, I walked straight into the kitchen to prepare their nightly ritual of Cod Liver Oil and their other vitamin supplements before packing them off to bed. To my utter surprise, I found my Little Man quietly sitting by the kitchen drawer trying to stuff in the clean rags and hand-towels into the drawer. It just melted my heart to see my Little Man acting all grown-up ... he had walked that extra mile that none of his three sisters have ever done in that regard.The usual response I would get if I had passed the clean rags to any of the girls would either be "Mummy, where to put the hand-towels?", or "Mummy, I put the hand-towels on the stairs, ok?".
I was so plesantly taken aback by the Little Man's action that all I could manage out of my mouth was "Ooowwww...you're so sweet. Thank you so much" whilst patting his shoulders and kissing his forehead. This of course instantly attracted the attention of the other Zoo members who rushed to see what all that "Oohh....Ahhhh....Ooowwww......" was all about. I just could not resist the temptation and said "Wow! See what your little brother is doing all by himself without me asking him to do it!". Their eyes spoke what their mouths failed to say ... "Ai-ya! I also know how to do what, just that I don't do it unless I am asked to....what's the big deal...".
The Little Man is really my BIG Little Man and I am so proud of his development.
Lately, the BIG Little Man likes to sit behind me, and then wrap his arms tightly around me from behind. At first, I thought that was such a sweet and affectionate gesture from my Little Man. How wrong I was! It appears that the Little Man was just visualising me as his motorcyle, with him as the pillion rider! The cheeky Little Man has even sneaked into my kitchen cabinet to grab a basket and put it on his head, proclaiming it to be his trusted helmet!!
 |
My pride and joy
... who incidentally happen to also be the
igniting cause of my recent numerous volcanic eruptions!
|
who is trying to be as diligent as possible in jotting down all her blessings so that when the tough gets going, she can remind herself to dig into her memory pockets and take a moment to pause and chuckle to avoid turning into a Monster Mum!
No comments:
Post a Comment