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Once upon a time, she designed buildings and interiors of corporate offices and on the rare occasion, homes. Now, she cleans poop and is student of a patience management course. From the drawing board as a London Architect to the realities of Motherhood, she has certainly learned many lessons in humility. And then others.....
To succeed in the corporate world, first succeed with your kid as the happy boss. Seriously. 
This blog is about Mamapumpkin: A crazy, kick-ass Mom who works full time juggling several jobs - the full-time paid job, the raising of her 2 kids (she gets paid in kind for this) and the volunteering job for various charity organisations and parenting websites. Needless to say, she gets very little sleep (3-5 hours per day, Margaret Thatcher who used to sleep 4 hours per day during her conservative career inspires this crazy lifestyle). Mamapumpkin intends to change the working Mom landscape in Malaysia where working women can bring their children to the corporate office of a client and not be frowned upon. 
She writes anything that comes out of her head, mostly without thinking first (since she already has to think at work!), which almost ALWAYS gets her into trouble (according to her husband, whom she considers the love of her life on a good day). Her 2 pet monkeys drive her towards challenge after challenge, 24/7.....day after day.....and interestingly, her parents are Muslim, her in-laws Buddhist, she's Catholic and her Hubs, an Atheist. She's thinking her kids should be Hindu, just to complete the rainbow religion cycle. Gotta love it. She'd love to hear from you : Mamapumpkin at gmail dot com  MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter 
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Well, one side anyway……OMG, T2……what have you done to my mirrors with those dirty fingers!!!!????? And where have those fingers beennnnnnnnn?????????????? OMG!!!
This girl, she’s such a girly girl. She loves dressing up and posing…….It’s definitely not from me. *turns to look at the Hubs*
And then she stripped her stocking off!
I’m telling you. It ain’t from me. When I came home one day, this was what I found. 2 designer seats in front, 3 plastic seats at the back with 3 passengers all cramped up in the middle seat. Supermarket trolley behind and bags on the floor.
Quick everyone. Guess what T2 was playing??? My fearless toddler finally found her Achille’s Heel. She is afraid of drills and the sound of drills. LOUD DRILLS!!! As Daddy fixed the CCTVs at our home one day, the little one ZOOMED for cover under the lanai table with fear in her eyes. Real fear. Too cute.
But after I explained to her that it was only a drilling noise, something Daddy was working on with his drill, she let out a smile………but still stayed under the table until Daddy finished his drilling.
One thing I’ll give the Hubs, he’s an absolute genius when it comes to anything household. When he drills, he has an envelope taped in such a way to the surface so that any drill dust that flies from the plaster ceiling (or wherever) goes STRAIGHT into the envelope. Something he designed himself – genius or what?! That’s what you call no mess drilling, yo! Sometimes, I leave the girls with the Hubs and go out for a breather. Every Mom needs that! It’s easy for the Hubs because they are generally well behaved with him around and he doesn’t give a toss about the finer details in raising children. One day when I came home, I saw this and started yelling because I have stated time and time and again that they needed to CLEAN UP after they finished playing. Nobody was in the room but when I started yelling, T1 stayed away for good measure and T2 came running in to check what the commotion was about……
It was obvious that there were little people jumping on the mattresses too when I have always said NO JUMPING ON THE BED. Why? Because someone has actually jumped and knocked her head on the wall before, that’s why. Then with her cute, squeaky voice, “That is my hair band shop, Mama…..” How not to love.
Thanks to my Nanny, T2 can now write her alphabets, not that it matters because she would have learnt it one fine day anyway. But it’s still a nice thing to WOW her with as she gets ever so excited every time she writes an alphabet or draws something to show us. The small alphabets are not written by her by the way…..only the big ones. She is still struggling with her phonics though because there is no one now to teach it to her thus I cannot decide if I should bother or not. She will turn three this August. T1 started reading at 3.5 years old and that is considered relatively early. It really doesn’t matter though whether your child starts reading at 3 or 8 because everyone will eventually learn to read! What DOES matter though is if you push your child to read at 3 when she isn’t ready because then you would be wasting a lot of time and your child would be missing out on all the other things that she is supposed to be doing at 3. Some children can readily read at 3, some at 8. Neither means the child is smarter. No way. So should I bother teaching phonics to T2? T1 learnt her phonics from school but now T2 isn’t schooling…… I honestly don’t care so much whether she can read or not but I really did enjoy T1′s early reading journey because it saved me a lot of time and although I still would read to her, her reading journey had a head start. She’s read the entire Harry Potter series and a few classics but now I’m making her take a step back to re-read all her books more critically. Even the Famous Five series since English at school is now more challenging, and it has helped as through reading, she is now making cross references to her writing work at school. Today, she was asked to write a play for English. It sounded challenging to me but she said it would be easy because she has read scripts before. Huh? Really? If Nanny hadn’t taught T2 to write, she wouldn’t know how to write. So that’s one thing taken care of! Who will teach her her phonics then??? We cannot even decide when to send her to school. Oh, I’m just so lazy….. Fearless kids are kids with guts and balls of steel. I have a fearless kid. Her name is T2. She jumps from heights that she isn’t supposed to. She walks on bars that are high and she does foolish stunts that she isn’t supposed to. Needless to say, she has lots of accidents. Lots more than T1 ever did. Lots! She is a stress bomb, I tell ya! All warnings fall on deaf ears, I kid you not. Even after a fall, she’d go right back up to try again. What do I do with this kid???
How many of you have babies who love sashimi? Sashimi for babies 101 coming up. If you do not want to spend oodles of money investing in top grade sashimi (several portions at that per time because my baby loves sashimi so much that she can eat all of 10 pieces at a go and if we don’t order several portions, well, nobody else will get to eat any sashimi), then do NOT introduce sashimi to your baby. Ever. For a good 20 years of my life, I never touched sashimi because the idea of raw fish? EWE. Besides, when we were growing up, eating Japanese food was a luxury that didn’t happen often. We would go to a Japanese restaurant once or twice a year??? It was only when I met the Hubs that I really started eating sashimi. And then grew to like it. Ouch. I remember having big sashimi cravings when I was pregnant yet wasn’t allowed to touch it. I think though after the first trimester I did have some for the wrath of greed. Then for some reason, my kids liked it too! They will readily vote for Japanese food when asked. They’d order chawan mushi, salmon sashimi and grilled fish or beef. T1 also likes the Japanese fried rice. Sashimi for babies is really not recommended for digestive risks but I think it’s OK once your child is above 2 years old and has proven to have a strong stomach without allergy problems. My girls eat us to the poor house. They really do. Last month our food bill alone was a shocking RMxxxx (way out of how much we want to spend on food!) but to be fair, we had guests from Australia so paying for a large group sometimes naturally added up.
Above, my cheeky monkey with a piece of her favourite food. Sashimi for babies, anyone? Already at 2.5 years old, I can tell that T2 will be a great Mommy. Here, she took her baby in a sling all around town visiting places (the train station, the hotel, the school, the supermarket, the temple, the Nana’s house, the shopping mall) and chatted to her baby the whole time. Doesn’t that make a great Mommy???
One of T2′s favourite pastimes is to dance. She’s got good rhythm and can even sing in tune. Apart from playing with her toys, reading her books, watching Harry Potter and playing with her sister, she also makes requests to blast the music so she can dance.
She really loves dancing!
It all began when our dear British Nanny, Hayley, started this dancing trend.
They would play this hip Christmas CD over and over again till one day, I’d had enough and gave them a pop CD instead. Gosh, those tunes are still ringing in my head whenever I look at photos of T2 dancing…..
Of course, T1 would be the brain behind any form of choreography moves and T2 would happily follow blindly…….
You know, maybe we should have a weekly 1 hour dancing session and Mama should join in. Just so I get my 1 hour workout THAT DAY!!!
Good plan??? This is T2′s poo pattern. She will suffer one whole day trying to keep her poo in because she’s had several bad experiences with poo (she suffers from piles and her bum insides actually fall out when she poos!) and during that day, she will be in a foul mood. That is the day everyone knows to keep out of her way. You cannot look at her nor talk to her as she would just yell at you, “NO LOOK!!!” During that keeping the poo in day, you would see her every now and then running to a quiet corner (such as the pic below), and squatting down in concentration for about 15 minutes before she psychologically pushes her poo back in and she’s off again to play. I swear this can happen all day.
After 1 or 2 days of keeping it in, it has to come out, right? But keeping it in has caused it to accumulate at the bottom causing a tennis ball to formate. A rock hard tennis ball. On good days, it is a rock hard golf ball. On even better days, just a clump of rock hard pebbles. Whatever the case, there is always blood, tears, and there is always bum flesh coming out from inside – piles? Hemarrhoids? Yes, since she was 2 years old…….who gets piles at 2? Only my T2!!! Apart from the fact that she suffers these big, painful, rocks that exit her backside every few days, I suffer hours and hours of stress just sitting with her in the toilet begging her to just release it. Come on then, Lady! Just glorify us with your Royal Poo why don’t you!??? Each poo session takes anywhere from 20 minutes to 3 hours. It is such a time waster for me. Yet I cannot leave her as she is in pain, she’s anxious and needs me beside her for comfort. Today we had yet another 3 hour sweating, drama poo session in the toilet. I’ve been so tired as we’ve had guests and I’ve had very little sleep what with work and everything else. So I finally made her an appointment to see a Chiropractor. Nothing else has worked!!! It’ll cost quite an investment but something worth seeing through I think. The hubs may not like it but heck, he’s not the one sitting with her losing 1 full day every month in sweat and discomfort. We have tried almost everything. The general rule when a toddler constipates is as below:- 1. Give her more water. At least 1 litre per day. This has been a problem as she is like her grandmother, does not get thirsty thus if you do not shove the water bottle in her face every 10 minutes for a sip, she will not drink and by day end, she would not have had her 1 litre. Such hard work…… 2. Give her more fibre. For her size, she needs at least 10grams of fibre per day. This is tough too as she does not like vegetables nor fruit, NOR JUICE. Thus any form of fibre has to be hidden. How much time do i have to make hidden fibre??? I try my best nevertheless…. 3. Reduce constipating foods. Surprisingly enough, many people will tell you to eat banana if your child is constipated but really, banana is NOT, and I repeat NOT a fruit to help constipation. Papaya is, banana isn’t. Other constipating foods include milk, yoghurt, cheese, cooked carrots; so stay away from these when your child is constipated. For me, this is relatively easy since T2 isn’t much of an eater but she does love her banana and milk…..she’s probably constipated because she drinks too much milk! 4. Get her to exercise more. Well, we live in an apartment. Need I say more? I will work harder to bring her out more often for exercise! We have seen several doctors about her shit problem and we still don’t have a solution. They have pumped with her various medications including probiotics and Enemas squeezed up her bum-bum; and I really have decided to go natural now. Enough of doctor crap. I will be making a conscious effort now to monitor her fibre and water intake, and see the Chiropractor and hopefully, this constipation woe will soon be a thing of the past. T2…..T2……if only you weren’t so stubborn and would just eat as Mama tells you. You think a Mom’s life is easy??? As you all know, T2 has only 1 friend. Haha….OK, she knows a few other toddlers from Mama’s friends here and there but really, Daania is the ONLY friend that she sees on a regular basis. She actually knows who Daania is.
Fashion Credits: On T2: Peach Cardigan – H&M Hennes Amsterdam, Shorts – T1′s old shorts from Kota Bharu Pasar Malam, Sandals – T1′s old sandals from TreeHouse. Look at my T2 – she insisted on wearing her cardigan when the room was NOT cold at all (and she was sweating!!!), and look at Daania, isn’t she beautiful??? Not sure what happened to her hair…..new age toddler fashion?
I love these two girls – they are so cute!!! As it is the school holidays, my girls are very busy driving me up the wall! However, I am having so much fun because their company is really great and they put me in stitches of hysterics every single day!!! They are psychotic lunatics, I kid you not!!! Today, T1 asked me if she could perform a Science Experiment to separate FAT. Huh? I had no idea what it was about and was too busy to really understand what she wanted to do so I just asked her what she needed. She said milk, dishwashing liquid and food colouring. Sounded simple enough. I asked her if there was any fire involved? She said no, not at all, am I crazy??? I truly didn’t have the time to monitor this activity so I told her to go search for the items herself which she did. Not long later, I heard squeals of delight from both girls!!! Not wanting to miss out, I ran to the kitchen to see what they were up to and they were both poking this cotton bud into the bowl of colours below and the colours kept moving in a certain way every time they poked the liquid. It was fascinating and a very pretty sight.
I finally asked T1 what this was all about and bless her, she taught me an interesting concept that I will now share with you. The objective of the exercise is to see how dish washing liquid removes oil/fat. I think? We all know that full cream milk has fat, right? Pour some full cream milk into a bowl. Add some drops of food colouring into the milk. Dip a cotton bud into some dish washing liquid and then start poking your coloured milk mixture. The dish washing liquid cotton bud will push the fat molecules around and this is what your colours are doing. That is exactly how T1 explained it to me. Then I asked her how and where she learnt this from? Was it from her Science Book? Or her teacher? Not at all!!! She said she read about it from a Science website!!! (the dangers of Google and an iPad). So I asked her where it was and here, ladies and gentlemen, I share with you Steve Spangler’s Science Website that contains lots of Science for Kids! Enjoy!
Nestle Fat Free Yoghurt. Although I really don’t agree with T2 eating Nestle Fat Free Yoghurt (because she needs all the fat she can get!), the little minx just loves it and insists on eating it every time she sets eyes on it either at the supermarket or at the club we frequent. And how do you say no to a face like that??? Wouldn’t she be a great little spokesperson for Nestle??? She’s usually not a yoghurt person but goes through phases. Recently, she made me buy the Yoplait Petit Miam which she used to dislike and insisted on Vanilla flavour. I’m not even sure she knows what vanilla flavour is but when I tested her several times, asked if she wanted Strawberry, Berries, or Peach, she started getting irritated and swore she wanted VANILLA FLAVOUR!!! Okayyyyy…………chill. Do your kids eat Nestle Fat Free Yoghurt? It is filled with live culture and no artificial colouring. They come in so many flavours but T2 only likes the Strawberry. Just so you know, each tub of Nestle Fat Free Yoghurt contains 162mg of calcium. I believe toddlers require 800mg of calcium per day which they get mostly from milk and food and then you supplement the rest with cheese, yoghurt and whatever.
Drama or what??? Honestly, what does one do with kids when one has to go to a public washroom? At least now that they can both stand, they are just forced to come in with me. There is no way I am letting any of them stand outside out of my sight. They moan and groan but they have no choice. It is really hard for mothers especially when their tiny tots are not walking yet. What the heck do you do with the baby when you need to use a public toilet? Yes, keep her in the stroller. But what if the stroller does not fit into the toilet? Not all public venues have disabled toilets large enough to house a stroller. What if you don’t bring a stroller that day? You’re basically screwed. It’s happened to me before. Oh, yes. I’d put baby in the Baby Bjorn and then had food poisoning at the hospital with no one to pass the baby to. What do you do? You wing it, Honey. If you have a toddler who can stand, or is wobbly, you have to worry about her deciding to crawl on the filthy public toilet floor or worse, touch any surface and then put her fingers into her mouth. So to all you readers out there who are not yet married, or not yet with babies, LEARN. Motherhood is NOT easy and I will not lie to you. You will never derive such joy from having babies but it is NOT easy. As long as you know it, go on then…….take that dive to the point of no return. They should just invent some gadget to place your kids in the toilet temporarily till you are done. Like a baby carrier that’s attached to the toilet wall, or a cage of some sort within the cubicles, haha! Not every one has a maid. Not every one wants a maid.
Look at my kids. We’re OUT of the washrooms but apparently their sense of smells are hyper-sensitive. *rolls eyeballs* My girls, they fight. Oh…..they fight. Like spit and spat and hitting and screaming……but at the end of the day, they always make up. They are sisters after all. Best friends forever. I love how they miss each other when the other isn’t around. I love how they protect each other. I love how they plot together. I love how they play together. I love how they do projects together (with T1′s leadership, of course! T2 will happily follow….). I love how they act silly together. I love how they surprise us together. And there is one thing they have never done and that is to snitch on one another. Not yet. They make fun of each other. Like if one of them got yelled at, the other would snigger and sing, “Haaaa….Haaaaa….. Someone……Got……..Scolding……!!!” The funny thing is, even when T2 gets the scolding, she herself will sing it to herself, “Haaa…..Haaaaa…….Someone…..Got…….. Scolding……!!!!……That’s ME!!”
Whenever I see my girls together, I wish and wish that I had a sister. I’ve always wanted a sister. Perhaps in my next life.
One of the things T2 loves doing is playing Hairstylist. She did it first with our British Nanny and now she’s doing it with our local Nanny. Bless them. I will still not be victim to THIS hairdresser.
It’s a good thing both Nannies have long hair!
Here are some of the styles that T2 did……
I don’t know if she actually tied the hair like that or just used her mouth to INSTRUCT the Nanny how to tie the hair.
But if she tied it herself, I’d be well impressed. It means the fine motor skills of those little fingers are at work. It is no secret that in this household, I am the Queen. I only need to command and the deed is done. Even the Hubs knows this. The kids have a way of mocking me though. Every time I ask them for a favour, they will run off to do the task but without first saying in a dramatic tone, “Yessssss…..YOUR MAJESTY!!!”
T1 started it, of course…..and now, T2 follows suit.
So even when I tell her to go grab a diaper which is for her OWN benefit, she also says, “YESSSSS!!!!! Your Mayesty!!!”
I told them, if they really wanted to treat me like Her Royal Highness, then they must also bow or curtsy whenever they respond to my commands, so here they are practising the royal bow and curtsy……
This girl, what can I say? She is a little terror! The Hubs always says that in our house, there is the Thinker and there is the Enforcer. Who do you think is whom? Well, T2 is definitely the Enforcer because whenever she SCREAMS, her scream is SO LOUD and SHRILL that everyone bows to her commands. Her voice when screaming is painful to the ears thus it is easier to just give her what she wants than to fight with her. We choose our battles obviously, as she absolutely cannot get everything that she wants. But man…..she is a nightmare child. Nightmare sister too as T1 would attest. T2 is going through the Terrible Two’s right now and I never understood the term till now. T1 was only a mild version of the TT’s. Add that in to her name and you have a triple T! Super power! Blows us out. T2 is now 2.5 years old (a little more once this post comes out) and she is although the most horrific toddler, the cutest thing on this planet. Her voice (when not screaming) is cute but the sentences that come out of her baby mouth is even cuter. She is bossy, darn bossy – the bossy genes come from my Mom. She just orders people around and people fall to her command. She is fearless, always ready to try something new that involves touching, climbing, jumping, throwing and anything physical – even if it means being sent to hospital with stitches. She likes exploring new things and new ways of doing things, as any toddler does. She is completely unadventurous when it comes to food. She only wants to eat what she knows and when offered new food, she would check her sister’s expressions first before she decides if she wants to go near ANY new food. And usually, she politely declines. But if you offer her it the third time after she declines, she starts yelling at you! You have been warned. She can dance and sing quite well, has pitch and rhythm and is very curious about the world. She never fails to ask questions and the WHY’s have turned into Mama answering …..because the sky is so high! But it backfires, of course, because the next time you ask her why she hasn’t finished her milk, it is because the sky is so high, followed by a high pitched snigger. She even sings, 1-2-3-4-5 Once I caught a fish alive, 6-7-8-9-10 then I let it go again, Why did you let it go? Because the sky is so high!.………*knocks head* She has a very cheeky face and demeanour, she’s always up to tricks and cracks us up to no end. A born comedian, she must just learn it all from her sister. She doesn’t like smiling. Nuh-uh. She loves looking like she’s about to beat you up. It’s a warning not to mess with her. But if you can get beyond that with a little bribery (hint: chocolates on a good day may work), you might be lucky enough to catch a smile…………. Recently, she has started fighting with her sister with words. When her sister said in exasperation, “You’re such a nightmare, T2!”, T2 retorted, “YOU NIGHTMARE!!@!@*!!”. So Uncle Ben had a plan and advised T1 to play reverse psychology and call her clever instead. The first time, T2 kept quiet. But when provoked, she shouted back to T1, “No, YOU CLEVER!!!@!!*!!” Haha…. She’s just a little MAFIA on two legs. It’s her way or the high way. You’d think she was the sweetest little angel just by looking at her but she is the perfect example of a hot, spicy chilli padi. Despite being half the height and half the size of her sister, she can win her sister hands down in any battle. And to be quite honest, she can win with most people. I pray every night that she doesn’t get bashed up by someone whose line she crosses and hope this is just a toddler phase. The Terrible Twos and T2.
T2 has always been a dare devil. Foolishly fearless. Yup. She’d jump off a cliff if you asked her to. For the fun of it! Whilst in Kota Bharu, the girls each had their size appropriate bicycles (me included, heh! Remember??)
But after learning how to ride her own trike, T2 had had enough.
Onto bigger and better things…….
I’m telling you, this girl is always running before she can even walk properly.
And err….yup, below is Kong-Kong and the Hubs trying to figure out how I managed to spoil my bike. That old antique bike that once belonged to the Hubs. Made in England. I bet Kong-Kong was crushed.
Mind you, that wasn’t the only thing I damaged that trip *boo-hoo!* 
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