This is My Tuesday

Yesterday, I marked the first anniversary of me being a Stay-At-Home-Mum (SAHM). I can’t believe time has flown by so quickly! In my mind is a jumble of thoughts related to this topic which I need the time to sit down and sort out before I will be able to post anything coherent about it. Instead, I thought it might be fun capture a snippet of what my day looks like now as a SAHM with two young kids.

It’s Tuesday today, and this is how it might go.

7.15AM: My alarm goes off. If the children have not already woken up, I hit the snooze button a couple of times before dragging myself out of bed. If the children have woken up early that morning, I will already have had to get out of bed, though I do crawl back in for a bit of a snooze if my helper is able to sort the kids out.

7.45AM: On this particular morning, the kids are sleeping like logs. I wake Noey up to get ready for school. Having to wake him up guarantees that he will be in a grouchy mood. He complains about being tired and whines about not wanting to go to school. I have to alternately cajole and threaten him to get him to wash up, change into his school uniform (he’ll be insisting on wearing his pyjamas to school for a while), and eat some breakfast.

The commotion of one child waking up is always enough to wake the other. Nomi is up too. First thing she does is retrieve her pacifier and pop it in her mouth. After that she’ll demand that I open the bedroom door for her and she’ll walk out to find my helper in the kitchen. My helper will clean her up and change her diaper, then give her a bottle of milk.

8.05AM: I repeatedly urge to Noey to put on his socks and shoes quickly and head out the door. He remains oblivious and takes his own sweet time. I hustle him out the door and into my office: our Citroen C4 Grand Picasso. The driver of the family has started work.

8.15AM: We arrive at Noey’s school in the nick of time. In clear traffic, the drive only takes 3 minutes. Traffic can be pretty unpredictable though. Some days we hit a pocket of heavy traffic and it takes longer. Upon arrival, I hop out to help Noey out of his seat, usually to find that he’s kicked off his shoes during the incredibly short ride. Argh. I shove his feet into his shoes and rush him out the car to the reception point, where he has his temperature taken. I give him a hug and say goodbye. Sometimes I hang around to see him settle into his classroom or chat with some of the other Mums who are dropping off their kids, before heading off. Tuesday morning is marketing day, it’s off to the wet market for me.

8.35AM: I arrive at the wet market and me and my trusty trolley start making our rounds.

I love coming to the wet market where I can finally get decent yong tau foo and fresh fish. I’ve also recently discovered a good fruit stall which I’m particularly pleased about. The nearest wet market to my home, which is also the one I frequent, is not the cheapest, but the prices are still significantly lower than at the supermarket. I load up on meat, veg, dried goods like tang hoon and dried scallops, and fruits, and I’m carrying more than enough for the week ahead.

9.45AM: I arrive home and unload. In the meantime, Nomi would have had her breakfast and some time to play with Papa. On this day, I arrive home to find her fresh out of her bath.

I dress her and pick up our things and we head out the door because Tuesday morning is also Nomi’s gym day!

10.15AM: Nomi and I enjoy some gym time. This is Nomi’s second term at gym, and I think she quite enjoys it. She’s still big on hanging and swinging from a bar, though the balance beam has recently won her favour. Balls are also always winners.

All too quickly, it is over and we have to rush out the door after hastily putting on our shoes. It is time to “pick Tor-tor!” as Nomi would say.

11.25AM: We arrive at Noey’s school, slightly late. He is thrilled to see us and gives me a big reception. This is actually one of the highlights of my day — arriving to pick him from school, seeing his face light up on seeing me, and having him rush out and hug my legs while greeting me with a loud and delighted “Mummy!” He also likes to pull things out of his bag to show me. Today it is a Dinosaur Egg that his teacher gave him. Guess even his teacher knows he really likes dinosaurs! (Aside from his party, it could have been the fact that for show and tell on “my favourite pet”, whilst everyone brought pictures or toys of cats and dogs, my son brought a picture of an apatosaurus.) I thought it was very sweet of her.

After picking Noey, I bring both kids with me to the nearby supermarket to pick up some of the other necessities that we need for the week that I wasn’t able to pick up at the market. Things like milk and cereal. I notice that the clams are on offer, so I grab a packet, making an on-the-spot decision to cook pasta instead of steak for dinner. Bringing both kids with me on this quick pitstop was against my better judgement, and I am proven right when Nomi refuses to sit in the trolley and they both start bickering about pushing the trolley. I have to carry her while trying to prevent Noey from crashing into other shoppers with the trolley he is pushing, and shop as well. By the time I get to the payment counter, I am frazzled and cannot wait to get home.

12.10PM: We finally get home. Yay! I unload the car and unload the children and take a short breather before lunch.

12.30PM: We sit down to lunch. Today, it is Bee Hoon Soup, cooked by my helper. I decide to grant Noey his request for juice. Of course, whatever Gor-gor gets, Mei-mei will insist on as well. The kids sit down with their drinks and my helper feeds Nomi while I eat my lunch and feed Noey at the same time. He entertains himself with a book at the table. Coincidentally, today he’s reading Richard Scarry’s “What Do People Do All Day?”, which is really apt for this post!

12.50PM: Nomi finishes her lunch. Sometimes she’s even quicker. The girl loves her food. My helper then brings her to the room to clean up and change, and then she goes down for a nap, usually by 1.30pm. On a good day, she’ll sleep for 2 hours. She usually manages at least 1.5 hours.

In the meantime, Noey is slowly finishing his lunch. When he’s finally done, after many exhortations to hurry up and swallow, it’s bath time. I bathe Noey while he tries play in the shower. I have to make him get out.

After changing him into fresh clothes, I usually leave Noey to play on his own for a while. Today, he asks for a snack. I think he should have eaten more during lunch instead and tell him so. But on account that it was Bee Hoon that we had and I get hungry in an hour after eating Bee Hoon, I let him have some cereal. He munches as he reads. I read the newspaper or catch up on tweets/facebook/blogs on my phone.

2.30PM: Nap time for Noey. He doesn’t always nap these days. I count it as a good day when he does. These days, I wander to the bedroom and leave him to find his way in. He usually comes in when he’s tired, like today. I lie down with him while he drifts off to sleep. By then, it’s nearly 3pm. If both kids are asleep at the same time, I usually try to take a snooze. Doesn’t usually last long though.

3.15PM: True to form, Nomi wakes up shortly after Gor-gor has fallen asleep. It’s time for her milk, and these days, only Mama will do. So I follow her out to get her a bottle. After she is done, we read, play with stacking blocks, sing and do action songs, or play with duplo. Over the past week or so, we’ve been doing jigsaw puzzles. Nomi’s become a jigsaw puzzle fiend. She loves pulling out the 2-piece puzzles and doing them over and over again. It’s been fun watching her slowly get what she’s supposed to do with it. From having to search out the pieces for her, to seeing her now being able to find the matching pieces on her own, and from aligning the piece for her, to seeing her now being able to pick up and and rotate the pieces to fit, I feel a real sense of delight seeing watching her progress.

4.00PM: Noey wakes up and comes join us in the playroom. As usual, he rolls all over me before he is fully awake. This non-touchy-feely Mama often wonders how she landed up with such a touchy-feely son.

It’s time for their afternoon snack. I offer them fruits, and somehow, they end up having froot loops. “It tastes like fruits, Mummy,” Noey tries to reassure me. Right. Not exactly what I had in mind.

After snack time, we play some more. I suggest a board game which Noey agrees too, but when I get the box out, all he wants to do is play with the game pieces. Nomi also keeps running away with some of them. I abandon the idea. The rest of the time is spent answering questions, breaking up fights, repairing/packing/organising toys and books as they get pulled out to be played with, and cleaning bums. In between, I check out recipes, supplies, and finalise dinner plans. Sometimes we go out in the afternoons to the park but we can’t today as I have invited my bro over for dinner and need to cook. I also instruct my helper on the prep work for dinner.

Tonight, we are trying a new recipe — Potato Gratin — so I am in the kitchen to get it done myself.

6.00PM: I pop the potato gratin into the oven and instruct my helper on when to take it out then it’s playground time for the kids! My dad drops in for an unexpected visit after work and he joins us downstairs.

6.45PM: I manage to extract the kids from the playground after their fun. We say goodbye to my Dad and make it back upstairs. The potato gratin is done and looks good. Hurray! The recipe is a success. Stay tuned and I’ll be sharing it later in the run up to Christmas. It’s a good side dish to have with all the festive meats. I let the children go mess around a bit while I finish up cooking the seafood aglio olio.

7.00PM: The food is ready and the kids and I sit down for dinner. DD doesn’t usually make it back in time for dinner with us. If we’re lucky, he comes home while we’re still eating and joins us for the tail-end of the meal. If not, he’ll eat when he gets back.

My brother has come to join us for dinner tonight, and he makes it soon enough, though he’s late too. Everyone loves the food and the potato gratin is a hit. Definitely re-making this one! I chat with my brother over the meal. It’s been a while since we’re caught up, which was why I asked him over in the first place. Nomi usually finishes eating first and will be whisked off by my helper for her evening shower. Noey follows suit after he finishes his meal, though sometimes bath time for him is delayed till Papa gets back to do it.

8.15PM: We all have some play time before bedtime. I try to keep it quiet and not too stimulating, but it doesn’t work when we have guests! Noey and Nomi have a good time horsing around with their Jiu-jiu. DD comes back around this time as well, and will eat dinner on his own. If there is time, we have some family worship or read the children some bible stories or revise what Noey learnt in Sabbath Class. Other times, DD he tries to spend some time with the kids before I start packing them off to bed.

9.00PM: It’s bedtime for Nomi. We read some bedtime stories, clean her teeth and give her a bottle of milk. (I try to clean her teeth after she’s done but am not always successful. Oops.) I bring her into the room and she gets me to sing songs that she likes before she rolls all over me and falls asleep. Thankfully she usually falls asleep quite quickly. In the meantime, DD entertains Noey and reads him his last bedtime stories.

9.30PM: It’s Noey’s turn for bed. I am again in the room with him while he falls asleep. On a good day, this happens by 10pm. Otherwise, well, it could take a while.

10+PM: Finally it’s my time! I catch up with DD, and then take the time to surf the net, blog, or online shop. I also plan the activities for the next day. A couple of times a week, I’m so tired that I just fall asleep with the kids and don’t wake till the next morning.

Between 12.30AM-2AM: I go to bed. I mostly get some decent sleep, interrupted by Nomi would waking up to make her way into our bed in the middle of the night. (She sleeps on a mattress on the floor.)

The next morning, we start again.