Mamapumpkin??? 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, demented Mom who cares full time, alone, without any help, for an even crazier preschooler AND a baby with a boob addiction problem.
She writes anything that comes out of her head, mostly without thinking first, 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 by the way, 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
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By Mamapumpkin, on May 21st, 2010%
It’s now been 2 months since my Filipino helper decided to give me a birthday present. I will not lie. Life has been tough. Very tough. Tougher still because I have what the Doctor calls Stress Induced Asthma (on top of my normal asthma). And when your baby cries non-stop, you start to hyperventilate. Your bronchial tubes choke up, you start choking and coughing and gasping for air and your inhalers no longer work because the passages down to the lungs are all clogged. Thus the medicine reaches as far as your mouth. Very scary indeed.
The Doctor has since warned me that I need to manage my stress levels (and although he gave me some steroid pills, the same ones I used to take when I used to be hospitalised every year in the UK for asthma, on top of my steroid inhalers and normal Ventolin inhalers; he said I really needed to not have stress in my life – yeah, what a joke) and I have been working hard to do that. But I haven’t done it without help. I have the loveliest friends from Blogosphere who have been so, so, so, sooooooooooooooo, SOOOOOOOOOOOO kind and they have been helping me with this little problem.
Firstly, one Mama introduced me to Cordyceps and after some nagging, I eventually got some in my kitchen and boy, does it help. It really, really does help and I recommend that anyone with lung problems and asthma should drink cordyceps soup or take cordyceps in some form or other at least once a week. I’m trying to do that now but as we have no maid, I’m trying to keep dinners simple. And to me Western dishes are more simple. So the Chinese Cordycep soup gets forced to come out once a week.
Another Mama, my God…..she totally blew my mind away when she sent over a tin of Godiva Hot Chocolate to my husband’s office. And as it is my only tin (and something too expensive to buy!) I have been using it very sparingly and only in emergency cases!! And that is when I am really, really, REALLY, well and truly stressed and have had an extremely rough day. You know those days, right? Yup. Those days? I make myself a gorgeous, gorgeous, CHOCOLATY mug of Godiva (my fu*king best buddy, man) and my nerves resolve into instant calm. I kid you not.
Thank you, my friends. THANK YOU.
By Mamapumpkin, on May 13th, 2010%
Why is it that whenever I have tons of assignments to do and purposefully load myself up with caffeine in preparation for burning the midnight oil just to make a measly USD80 (of which I am desperate for, mind you), my baby will undoubtedly decide to find every reason under the sun to stop me from working?
After not having worked out for almost 3 months, I had my first workout today. Needless to say, my body is ouch. I made a priority list today (after I saw how absolutely LARGE I was in the mirror! I have no more neck and that is quite serious…) that exercise shall be a priority. No more making excuses of not getting enough sleep, nor T2 being demanding and wanting me to carry her all the time (she’s just going to have to cry!!!), nor being busy with other things like cooking and cleaning……and ironing. Gosh!!! Ironing!!! It takes me 3 hours every week!!! I asked friends abroad (the blond ones) how they cope and they say they only iron an item the day it is going to be used. Gulp. Back to the drawing board. Shall I outsource? I was told it was RM1.50 per piece. Ouch! I cannot afford that! So for now, I’ve changed my mindset. Ironing is my new therapy…..in addition to shopping, of course.
I have a recurrent eye stye or whatever it is and it seems this has started since I started wearing some make up. Tonight, the eye is really bugging me as it keeps producing tears and makes my one eye all blurry. It is also itchy. Urgh.
I have an addiction to dessert. Seriously. I cannot go a single day without something sweet. How? I am considering hiring a personal trainer. At least then, I know I cannot waste my efforts. It’s RM120 per session. F%RK.
T2 still doesn’t sleep through the night. What is wrong with her?????!!!!!!!!!
My nose keeps dripping and dripping and dripping……drip-drip-drip…..
It’s 2.22am. Enough grumbling. Good things have been happening too. But I’ll save that for another day. It’s always better to let the shit out first……
By Mamapumpkin, on May 5th, 2010%
I have that by my bedside tonight. And I intend to finish reading it by tomorrow morning. No kidding.
Today, I had one of those days. Yes, THOSE days. Those where you want to drive your car over a ditch at 200km/hr with both kids unbelted and warn them of the thrills ahead so you can all shout together, WHEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! Then crash. Splat. Morbid. OK, I’ll take another approach. How about if I lined up the rest of the world and bludgeoned them not to death but till they beg for mercy. Gosh, I am feeling rather evil today, aren’t I?
Well, you would too if your baby woke up a minimum of 3 times a night, roughly at 1am, 3am and 6am every morning and wails for the boob. Then all day she doesn’t want to nap (AT ALL) and if at all, then it’s a maximum of 2 hours on a good day which happens once a week at best. And wait, there’s more. She doesn’t want to eat either. She is already grossly underweight and the Doctors are worried that she is not gaining. Being a small baby is fine but not gaining weight is not. Tell me, how is this not stressful? She’s barely touching the 3rd percentile on a breastfed baby chart, for goodness sake! My poor baby……is only 6.5 kilos. She has put on less than a kilo since she was 4.5 months old. She is now on her 9th month. Worrying sick does not even begin to describe my state of mind. She isn’t sleeping, she isn’t eating, so of course, she’s not growing. But what the fuck am I supposed to do about it?!! Force feed her? I don’t know how!
We took our first step into investigative procedures which was to test a stool sample to ensure she wasn’t passing out all the fat that she was eating. The test came back negative, which was great but it leaves us still with the worry of what then is causing her not to gain normally. The Doctor has requested for blood work to be done next. And I just can’t bear the thought of that.
In all other aspects, T2 is developing normally as far as I can see. She can sit independently, rolls all over the place confidently, doesn’t have a single tooth and can only crawl backwards which frustrates her to no end when she’s wanting to move forward. She can wave hello and goodbye and knows instinctively what comes next in sequence to regular activities. She babbles when she’s in the mood, scolds when she’s pissed and laughs when the jokes are really funny. She gets hyperventilatingly excited whenever the boob comes close to her face and knows who is who. So yeah, all in all, pretty normal.
To top this off, I have a preschooler whom I have to keep up with and a husband who keeps nagging me about my ‘habits’ on a daily basis. There is piles of laundry, ironing, the home is so dusty that I am getting major sinus attacks, I am struggling to keep my kids alive with my half-assed scrambled cooking and, and, and, and…..I just don’t know where to start with anything. What I consider my support system has an easy solution – get a maid. But that is not what we want to do. So what do we do?!
Today, I felt like crying. I felt like picking up the phone to cry to a best friend. To just lament about my sad current state of affairs. To get some sympathy because boy, do I need it! But I quickly realised that I do not HAVE a best friend. And I did not even have anyone to call!!! Who would I have called? I have no fucking clue.
So after picking Tee up from school with screaming baby in tow (I have T2 screaming with me in the car everyday because the time I pick Tee up is exactly when T2 would want to eat or sleep or have a poo, and I have tried all combinations and avenues to solve this little problem, but she still insists on being fussy at exactly TWO PEE AM!!!). Where was I? Oh, after picking Tee up….I didn’t want to face a home that didn’t even make me feel like I was going home anymore. So I drove around town aimlessly, ran a few errands, tried to feed T2 her lunch in a parking lot and eventually parked myself at Moms. I would have burst out in tears but I was too proud. Because she, of all people, would have been the first to say I told you so or tell me to get a maid.
Nevertheless, she helped me take care of Tee AND T2. Took care of dinner. Fed the kids. Bathed the kids. Played with the kids. She even offered to come to my home to clean it for me as she knew how bad I was with housework. It is rather strange…..Mom is really, REALLY good at housework. She’s the type who does things very fast, super efficient, yet you wouldn’t find a millimeter of grime around your sink ring because she would have scrubbed it off with a toothbrush. She cannot stand the tiniest, baby crease on a made bed. And a table must be set to perfection. Shirts are ironed fast but without defect. Smooth as paper. Yet, she never taught her own daughter how to do good housework. I am really crap at it.
What can I say?
That’s the thing with Moms. Nothing needs to be said sometimes. They just know. They just KNOW when their daughters are feeling a little low. Hey, that rhymes. *bows*
I hope I know my girls as well as Mom knows me one day.
Thank you, Mama. Thank you from the bottom of my very heavy cellulite infested large body. I love you SO MUCH.
By Mamapumpkin, on April 18th, 2010%
See? My shoes matches my dress SO WELL.
Last night, I left a crying Tee at 8pm and zoooooooomed out at Road Runner speed, slamming the door behind me and the last image I had was of the Hub’s carrying T2 with a worried, stressed out look.
I blocked out the sounds of cries and THAT image and told myself I was going to have a blast and had a blast I did. Honestly? If you are a Mom and haven’t been on a ladies night out since you cannot remember when, then you’re certainly due for one. I think all Mommies should have a ladies night (or day) out (WITHOUT KIDS) at least once a quarter. At minimum. I’m planning to do it once a fortnight to once a month, depending on how busy we are.
I had volunteered to drive that night so it was more fun picking up school girls all in the same car; we giggled, we bitched, we laughed, we screamed……we were completely out of Mommy zone. Totally.
The peculiar thing was whenever I picked each lady up, they all had their kids seeing them off outside. Why are kids so sad to see Mommies go these days? In my day, I don’t ever remember being sad that my mother was going out? She just came and went. Maybe because she was out most of the time……maybe, I should go out more often. What do you think?
It was my first time at Red Box The Gardens (although I have been to other Red Box locations) and I must say I was mighty impressed. We parked at The Gardens Premier parking (costed RM13 for 6 hours from 9pm-3am) where they have lights to tell you where to search for parking spots. Very cool.
Then we paid RM55++ per person for entry which included a very good buffet dinner (it had great roast lamb, sashimi and sushi, yummy hot dogs, steak sandwiches, an assortment of rice, Chinese dishes, Italian dishes, local dishes, desserts, fruit, ice-cream, you name it, it was just like a hotel buffet and the quality was very good as I had expected a lot less) and 2 drinks; and of course unlimited use of karaoke and the room up till 3am. So stay up till 3am we did!
One of the ladies husbands smsed me to say that his wife had left her handphone behind and when I told her, she said, “Oh, I did that on purpose.” Muauhahahahaha!!! Maybe I should do that too since at 1am, I get an sms saying, baby is up. Then at 2am, I get another sms saying, w r u? And when I reach home, a grumpy Hubs is strewn across the bed sandwiched in between 2 sleeping darlings.
And then the next morning, I get a loooooooong lecture that I am supposed to be home at midnight, not THREE EY AM!!! Blablablablablabla……….grumble, grumble, grumble. I nead to search for some ear muffs. Really. Sometimes T2 gets too noisy too.
Anyway, Red Box The Gardens. I highly recommend it. They have a great selection of songs, including children’s songs which I really want to bring Tee to. Who’s up? Children below 140cm get in for free. I also want to organise another Mommies night out. Who’s interested? Let me know and I’ll include you next.
What really surprised me was that 2 of my friends could sing all those millennium rap songs! I mean….we’re Moms, FAR OUT!!! I don’t even know half of these songs and they are bopping to Neyo and Jay Sean. I mean, who the fuck are these guys? I only know 80s music….ala Madonna, Wham, Michael Jackson…some 90s….you know? But my friends, they’re obviously so happening that they can rap and know the lyrics to Black Eyed Peas and Fergie and Pink and Lady Gaga, so much that I have a new found respect for them.
Now that we’ve done our 1st round of karaoke, I am now more aware of what I listen to on the radio and I am going to start PRACTICING for my next karaoke session.
It is SO DAMN FUN!!!
By Mamapumpkin, on April 18th, 2010%
As requested by VonVon, our outfit of the day yesterday was…….tada!!
On Mommy:
Purple short sleeved open cardi – Lush Icon
Fuchsia nursing top – Mothercare
Pink capri pants – Esprit
Purple wedges – Charles & Keith
Pink crystal necklace – present from MIL
On Tee:
Pink top – Pumpkin Patch
White skirt – Marks & Spencer
Pink shoes – Crocs
On T2:
Pink romper – Mothercare
Pink floral dress – Target
By Mamapumpkin, on April 17th, 2010%
Tonight, I can’t wait to attend a Ladies Night Out with the girls screeching singing our hearts out. It has been so fun dressing up and putting make-up on, strutting around town in high heels. I feel like ME again and no longer the maid.
For lunch today, I shall wear my baby pink capri pants with a fuchsia nursing top with a purple short sleeved but long cardi with a long pink crystal necklace. And purple high heels. Unfortunately, I’ll have to carry a diaper bag as guess who will be my little accessory?
For dinner, I shall wear my purple BCBG dress with purple heels. Bag? Hmm….Accessories? Don’t know yet.
Fun!!!!
By Mamapumpkin, on April 10th, 2010%
We had a great day today.
Despite the fact that we all slept at 4am last night because Tee had a coughing fit which woke everyone up between 1-4am, we managed a full day out from 9am right up to 9pm. With a baby and a 5 year old out all day , that IS a challenge. Trust me.
Tee had drama class first thing in the morning, where she got to climb up the reading tree house with her favourite person in the whole wide world whilst the Hubs and I got busy at home with packing for the day and other house chores. Imagine packing for a baby who’d be out all day. Diapers – check. Lunch, snacks, dinner – check. Water, milk – check. Spare clothes – check. What else? What else? My Aussie cousin had a date with a property consultant in the KLCC vicinity as he is interested in purchasing something here. The girls are so hot! Definitely incentive for a single bloke with nothing else to do with his dough.
After we picked Tee from school, we headed for some dim sum, then went jalan-jalan at the Pavillion where we bought tickets to How to Train a Dragon.
This is it:
Last weekend, Tee and I happened to have some alone time because I had to rush out to buy some lunch and she came along with me, then said how she absolutely loved and missed this alone time with Mommy. She was so delirious that there was no T2 around to take away any form of attention from her. The delight on her face sent me into the shocking realisation that my daughter, my precious first born, really, really, REALLY missed me. And I realised too that in all this busyness with a new baby, I truly missed her as well. In fact, I missed her tenfold.
So at that very moment, I resolved that from then on, every weekend, Tee and I, we would have a Mommy and Tee date. Just the two of us, like old times. No crying baby. No baby. Daddy will sort the baby out.
Today was our first date. We went to watch a movie together. Holding hands like old friends. Laughing over pop corn. Shopping and giggling. Tickling and being silly. Kissing and farting. Oh, it was just like the good old days!!! We had an AWESOME time. At the movie, she sat on me and I must have kissed her like a thousand times. It was truly an epitome of the greatest Mommy-Daughter bond. I cried three times at the cinema, partly from the dragon movie and partly because I missed my girl. I really missed being with her.
So to all you Mommies of several children out there, one-to-one time with each kid I think, is very important. Even if once a month, once in 2 months or once a quarter!
All this while, Daddy was driving T2 and my cousin to the airport and T2 was ever the kind angel. She slept all the way and didn’t give Daddy any trouble, because he was genuinely worried should she suddenly demand for the boob. And I told him that it has been proven that if a baby sucked on a man’s nipples consistently for a few weeks, that he would start producing milk. Don’t believe me? Google it.
After our movie, who should we bump into but Tee’s favourite people of all (not Nana and Uncle Ben, for they are currently abroad) but the very same person she had class with this morning! We had a fabulously LARGE Italian dinner at the Westin with the kids having a blast, and finally came home to a house of smelly children who were forced to get cleaned up despite their exhaustion.
Well, good things don’t come easy!
I can’t wait for what tomorrow unfolds……
Oh, did I mention I bought 2 pairs of shoes?
By Mamapumpkin, on April 5th, 2010%
For the last 5 years since I had Tee, I was a Stay-At-Home-Mom without help. And for that, I was busy as hell and couldn’t be bothered with how I looked. Shit. When you have your toddler’s head stuck in a toilet bowl, your kettle whistling, your soup overflowing and the phone ringing, trust me, lipstick is the farthest thing from your mind.
So for five entire years, I have gone through my day to day life with Tee, SANS make up. There may have been the odd function here and there and believe me, I can probably count them with one hand, that I made a remote effort to do some face painting, but other than that, I have been au naturel. I don’t even comb my hair preferring to keep it up all the time as the weather is just too hot.
But lately, a friend of mine and I discussed the prospects of stay-at-home-Moms looking good. We look around us and many Moms are looking great. Perhaps it is the damn school we hang out at, but these Moms, stay-at-home or not, they come picking their kids up with perfume, earings, necklaces, perfect skin, coiffed hair, high heels, beautiful clothes……and we…….we just look like maids.
Really.
So we did a little experiment and timed ourselves to see just how much effort it would take to make ourselves look more presentable. You know, with a little make-up, neat hair and some decent clothes, not the pasar malam ripped T-shirt. We promised ourselves that we’d give it a go for at least a week. And what do you know? It really didn’t take too much effort once we got the hang of it!
Besides, it gave me loads more confidence. I no longer have to hide every time I see anyone important (you know, like the Prime Minister). I smile confidently whenever someone wants to take a picture of me. And generally, I am walking taller. So my advise to you stay-at-home-Moms is, put on some make up everyday! Even if it is just a little bit of lipstick….whatever it may be to accentuate your features. Whatever it is that makes you feel more confident, whether it be drawing your eyebrows, or applying some mascara or just dashing on some face powder. It is worth it.
I just hope I won’t be needing any adult acne treatment anytime soon……
*sigh*
So what do you think? With or without make-up? I asked the Hubs what he thought after my week of applying make up. His answer?
“Well, you no longer look like a maid!”
Oh, and if you look at the picture above carefully, you’ll notice that the reflection on the window is not really the reflection of me. So what could it be? I keep looking and looking and I still can’t work out why there isn’t a reflection of me. *twilight zone music*
By Mamapumpkin, on April 1st, 2010%
Now you know why we’re always busy!!! Did anyone know about the WTA Malaysian Open tennis championships this year? Well, Tee had a part to play in it as you will see below.
Strutting the court like a true tennis champ. She cannot even hold a racket! Too heavy!
T2 – what am I doing here? It’s so hot!!!
Tee sits patiently as the winners are announced.
Stands for the National Anthem and gets ready to lead the winners to the winning podium. All dripping in sweat…..
They are there and there is no podium as she was instructed to take them to the podium. Where’s the podium? Oh….typically Malaysian. There is no podium after all. They couldn’t fix it in time.
We wondered if she was negotiating with the winners for a small percentage of their USD10,000 dollar check winnings. C’mon Tee, just ask……If only!
Prize giving over…..
Then the press sets in full blast. Apparently it was all over the news, ESPN, CNN, BBC and in the newspapers too. We didn’t catch any of it because we were out that night. Out again?! Yes…..out again.
Poor T2 was dragged to attend che-che’s work day. Don’t ask me why she was in socks. It was hot as hell and thankfully, Tiger Beer (bless them), allowed me to savour their unlimited air conditioning with chairs so I actually got to sit!
By Mamapumpkin, on April 1st, 2010%
I just know it. This year is going to flash through in a blink. If my flu/bronchitis/stress disease/whatever you wanna call it lingers on till mid April, it would be 2 months which is the longest I’ve ever had to deal with an illness. Usually, it takes a month for my bronchitis to clear up good. The worse thing is, every other member of my family has had it, some recovered and then got it again. It’s really being passed around in merry-go-rounds. Very frustrating.
We have guests staying with us 4 times this year and you know, it usually takes the entire month to get back into the groove. Then we’re traveling for 2 months, that’s already 6 months out of the year’s schedule. Add in Christmas, Raya and some birthdays, what time is there left for sorting ourselves out at home?
I have smses that I haven’t even had time to read and that is really bad because one of them called this morning as I was supposed to collect some freshly made jam tarts from her house this weekend. Argh! Forgotten!
It’s just a super busy time right now for me. I’m sick, I have a baby who clings on for dear life and just cries if she doesn’t see me, I have guests staying with me (and from today, I shall make them go out on their own as much as possible because, really, I should be home resting although having said that, I am taking them out tonight….but this was planned earlier), I have 2 very demanding girls who are constantly asking for things whether it be cleaning their poopy or giving them booby, I have no help whatsoever except when the Hubs gets home, people to feed, people to clean, let’s not even get to the state of home affairs! Seriously, so much to do with so little time……I am so tired.
Yet, I’m doing it with a smile. I am a super parent after all. I certainly strive towards being one! If you think you are a super parent or would like to know how to be one, hop on over to the super parents blog. You won’t be sorry 
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