parenting

Sharing books from my childhood

Arddun’s getting ready for Bigger School – transitioning next year from preschool to Kindy. And I suddenly got nostalgic about school and the books I used to read.

Found these online and decided to buy them. This was the edition I had growing up – same illustrations, same paper smell. The Naughtiest Girl in the School was my second Enid Blyton and Big Girl book that I read on my own. (My first was The Three Golliwogs but even then, the font was too big for me to feel like I was reading a properly grown-up book.)

I’m planning to read a chapter a night with Arddun. Hope she loves it as much as I did.

23 September 2016

When your daughter gets called a Bitch

It happened when I least expected it. We were at a small indoor playground at the local mall we frequent. We had just finished lunch. I had groceries to grab. Atticus was due for a nap but he had been hankering for the playground, so there we were.

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15 August 2016

Parenting as a lifestyle choice

Every now and then, talk fires up about tweaking family tax benefits and incentivising women to return to work through childcare benefits. And every now and then, murmuring inevitably crops up about subsidising what some deem to be “a mere lifestyle choice”.

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8 August 2016

The Whirlwind of Boy

As much as I’ve been reluctant to stereotype my children’s behaviour based on their gender, I am beginning to understand what mothers of sons mean when they say, “He is such a BOY.”

Because Atticus is such a BOY.

Atticus staring at the camera with lower lip jutting out — Oh boy oh boy oh boy.

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27 July 2016

2 July 2016

Overheard Arddun this morning

(To Atticus)

“What do you want to do?! I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO DO!”

Join the club, kiddo.

25 June 2016

Arddun turns 5!

Our little girl turned 5 last Saturday.

That’s half a decade old. That is ridiculous.

I look at her, and she’s gorgeous and she makes my heart smile. But sometimes, there’s a particular kind of terror that grips my heart because she’s growing up so quickly. When it was just her and only her, we could note every little difference. We relished each new word learnt, each new concept grasped. But now that we are Four, there are days I feel I miss whole chunks, whole spaces of time where I can look at my firstborn and really see her. The missing of minute changes and whispers of growing. The realisation sometimes stops me in my tracks like a heart twinge.

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25 June 2016