Mothering Corner

A friend of mine has a 13-year-old daughter who’s beginning to have some acne on her face. She brought her gal for microdermabrasion to clear out the acne but her condition doesn’t improve. Personally, I think pimples and acne are pretty common in teenagers. They should just clean their skin well and only apply acne treatment products which are recommended by certified dermatologists instead of beauticians. I agree that microdermabrasion does help in treating acne, but I won’t recommend her to start it so early as she will still have acne due to hormonal change.

I’m aware that some teenagers will suffer from lack of self esteem if they have acne problems. But there are ways of talking to a teenagers about acne, and parents play a integral role in this. If you teenager really wants to go for microdermabrasion, just remember that it’s not advisable for her to be exposed to the sun. But judging from our local schools condition, it’s not easy to be out from the sun, isn’t it?

When I was planning for my first child, I took note of my menstrual cycle well because I wanted to track my ovulation. It took me 2 cycle to conceive my baby and I was so happy about it. I know all the while when I’m ovulating as the discharge is heavier. However, if you are interested to know more about ovulation, check out the facts listed by Yahoo! Health.

The American Pregnancy Association offers the following information about ovulation:

• Once an egg has been released from the ovary, it can live for 12 hours to 24 hours.
• Women are born with millions of immature eggs. Typically, only one egg that has matured is released each month.
• Ovulation can be affected by factors such as stress, anxiety, illness, or an interruption of usual lifestyle and routine.
• Ovulation may cause feelings of aching, tenderness or soreness in and around the ovaries.
• Each egg that is unfertilized is absorbed by the uterine lining.

Funnily, they didn’t list out the difference in discharge. So, do you know that you are ovulating?

We are bring the kids to Disney On Ice next weekend and hopefully they will love it. This show is more about Mickey’s Amazing Journey with some of the favorite Disney friends like Lilo & Stitch, The Little Mermaid, 101 Dalmatians, Lion King and Peter Pan. My kids only know a few of the characters, but I still have time to read the books to them. Even if they might not know who they are, they can still enjoy the songs and dances. I’ve heard so much about the performance and we are eager to see the show.

We are going with 2 other families, and yes, they are blogger mommies too. The only problem is how are we going to squeeze in our little apartment in KL as there won’t be enough beds for 3 families! Besides that, I wonder if we can do some shopping after the shop. I’m looking for some plus size lingerie for a friend. But shopping with 5 kids all under 6 will be quite a challenge huh?

Both my kids put on nappies during the day when they were babies. But once they started crawling and being mobile, it’s not easy to put on the nappies for them, so we switched to pants instead. It’s quite messy when they wet themselves and there’s a lot of cleaning up to do. Nonetheless, my maid didn’t mind cleaning up the floor and I would handle the kids.

For the past few weeks, my gal refuses to put on the diaper when we are going out or taking her nap. She still has potty accidents, but it’s only like 3 times a week. However, after she wet the bed 2 days ago, I decided to put on diaper for her when she’s taking her nap. She is willing to put on the diaper at night because my boy’s doing the same, but during the day, it’s not easy to get her into diapers. It’s like a tug-a-way yesterday, so I only wore for her once she’s fallen asleep. I know it’s like reversing the fact that she’s potty trained, but cleaning up the mess of a wet bed is not convenient for me now. Maybe when my maid is back, I don’t mind letting her sleeping without a diaper. At least there’s someone here to help me out.

I don’t know why we have so much laundry everyday. It’s not like everyone at home is crazy about women and men’s fashion and change tonnes of clothes. Maybe I change my kids too often in a day huh? That’s why there’s so much laundry to handle. So, let’s hope that dirty bedding is not part of it.

No offense but I try my best to avoid bring my kids to funerals or to the cemetery. However, My boy went for “sau mu” last year but not my gal. She was too young for it. Hubby insisted that Justin should go along last year so that he understand what’s cheng meng is all about, and it’s one of the ways of showing him about Chinese culture.

We are going for sau mu again this weekend, and hubby suggested that we bring both our kids along. The first thing that comes across my mind is my gal won’t be able to walk all by herself and she wants to be carried. If my boy sees it, he wants to be carried as well and both hubby and I will be very tired by the end of the day after visiting 2 cemetery at different places. Furthermore, it’s not easy to walk at the cemetery. It’s bumpy and the tombstones are not aligned!

Another thing is some parents told me that young children tend to see “things” that we can’t see. One of my relatives’ son saw some “people” around them when they went for sau mu, but the adults couldn’t see what he’s talking about. Spooky huh? That’s why I don’t consider any houses or commercial real estate near a cemetery no matter how great they are.

Anyway, will you bring your kids along for sau mu?

I’ve been so busy lately, by the time the kids are all in bed, I’m too exhausted to update my blogs or do my knitting. I know that I don’t depend much on my maid in taking care of my kids but the house chores are too much for me. The house is just too big, no wonder it’s always messy because you just can’t clean the whole house in a day. Frankly, I concentrate more on my room and toilet besides doing the laundry. For the rest of the house, I leave it until I can’t stand the mess.

I’m glad that we will only stay in a small house in Bangkok later. Those big houses like the Outer Banks might be nice, but if I don’t have a maid or a cleaning helper, let’s forget about it. Now, I wonder if my maid will come back this Friday? Most maids will not return, you know?

I’m not sure when will we be leaving for Bangkok but our initial plan is moving in May. I wonder if I will be celebrating Mother’s Day with my mom in time before I leave, but if she doesn’t mind, I would like to bring it forward. I know that she will miss us all but she’s hiding her feelings from us.

So, if I’m leaving before Mother’s Day, I think I will send her some flowers. She asked us not to do so many years ago, and my brother and I stopped giving her flowers on Mother’s Day. But this year, I want to make an exception. I know that she will love it even if she pretends that they are just a waste of money. That’s how most mothers will react huh?

I set up a blog for my kids because I want them to know more about themselves when they are older and know more about their childhood. But sometimes, I wonder if it’s a right move since I expose so much about them without knowing how they feel about it now. Furthermore, you will never know who’s lurking on our sites and reading about our kids, so it’s a scary thought.

I think sooner or later, that blog will be a private blog with registered readers. I am not sure about to do so but I will ask my webhost about it if the day has come. My kids will surely want their lives to be private when they are older, so I have to respect their decisions.

So, if you are blogging for your kids, have you thought about this?

My SIL is still breastfeeding her 3 months old baby but it’s not convenient for her to do so anymore at her office. She doesn’t have a separate room and she just nurses by turning her chair away from the rest of the staffs. When the baby is younger, she will nurse with full concentration. But these days, she likes to observe what’s around her and nursing takes longer than usual.

I suggested that she use something like a sling to breastfeed in discreet. That’s what I did and I carried my baby in a sling too. But maybe she just needs a breastfeeding shawl? I haven’t use a nursing shawl before, so is it practical? I think it works just the same as the sling, am I right?

If you are wondering why she’s bring her baby to work, well she can’t find a nanny and she’s not confident in getting a maid. She owns the business so it’s ok for her to bring the baby along. It’s the same as working from home huh?

I don’t know much about cars and neither does hubby. We used to leave everything to the ex-driver and he sent the cars for regular service or maintenance. I think we have been relying too much on him and now it’s best for us to learn more about how to take care of our cars. When we move to Bangkok later, we will have to settle everything on our own, so that includes how to take care of a car too!

I think we have to learn some parts of a car in Thai language too. We can order an Integra Radiator online but it might take too long to reach us. It’s more convenient if we can correspond with the local mechanic fluently in Thai as most of them can’t speak English. There are so much to do and learn about our new home. However, I think we can manage well if we put our effort into it.