2014 July: One Day As a Mom

2016 April: One Day As a Mom of 1.5

2016 June: One Day As a Mom of Two

Fast forward 9 months later, I have evolved lol.

Here’s an updated post on how things have changed, after having the second child for 9 months now.

I am now a full time, sort-of-still-keeping-a-blog mother, who rather (with no choice) spends her time picking up crushed egg bolo on the floor than to edit a nice picture for Instagram likes.

It also made me sort of crazy. One day I was just so exhausted with two screaming children while not feeling very well and with a million things to do, suddenly I saw glooms all over my head. And I thought, what a shitty job being a mother is. You don’t get paid a single cent, you don’t ever get holidays, sick also have to work, and nobody ever thanks you for wiping off a stained toilet…

It really was the worst job ever.

And then… I decided to self-declare MC. I texted the danna and said, “today I’m on MC. No clean, no cook, no take care of Junya and Sakura”. And then he just replied “ok, you take a rest”. So that day I ordered delivery, and the house was a complete mess. At night when the danna came back he asked me where’s the laundry. And I replied “I dunno? I’m on MC.” HAHAHA.

So yea. Mothers need MCs. Lots of it.

Anyway, a few things has changed since my last post on June 2016. Firstly, Junya started going to full day child-care. Which means that I have a lot more free time to do other things. Which sort of make me back to a mother of 1.5. Or 1.5+. Sort of.

Secondly, I finally resorted to having domestic help and got myself a new helper. What can I say? I only have two hands.

Her name is Mary and she fainted the second day at work in our house and caused a big panic.

But I love her because other than that one time incident, she is pretty reliable. She cleans thoroughly, super on time, work hard, doesn’t complain or talk much unless she is stuck. When she is tired she goes back to rest and cleans again when she is recharged. The best quality of her is that she has zero sneaky pattern, won’t 偷工减料, won’t steal things unless you purposely leave it on the floor lolol. Basically whatever you throw at her, she just sucks it all up. She’s a tough one.

That’s her.

Haha. After a year of no domestic help, I have realized that it is impossible for me to have one again. Especially looking at the layout of most apartments in Singapore. Our apartment is pretty compact so if we were to hire one, the default place for her to sleep and spend most of her time is… guess where? The “utility room”, which is, guess what? A bomb shelter. Bomb shelter!!! It fits exactly one single bed and maybe one stool, with no window whatsoever. And when the door is closed, it is pitch-dark. I cannot ever imagine how a person can live happily inside a bomb shelter and that is where many, many domestic maids’ rooms here are like. Maybe wait until one day when I am royalty rich and live in a palace, then I’ll consider having one again.

And I have never appreciated a robot so much. Really. My life is so much better after having her. Sometimes I bend down and pat her head and say “otsukaresama desu” (辛苦你了). Junya will tell her good bye when he leaves for school and say hi when he comes home. My relationship with a robot helper is so, so so so much better than when I had a human helper. I beg someone to now invent toilet bowl cleaning robots, bedsheet changing robots and put-all-the-stuff-my-toddler-throws-back-to-where-they-belong-robots.

Other than this new help, I have also embraced the life of cooking, tidying and cleaning. I realized how to choosing not to do housework/cook does not make anyone a bad mother. It simply mean the person enjoys doing it less than other things, for example catching Gen2 pokemons. (Which I secretly do. Don’t tell the danna.) I used to hate tidying and cleaning because I thought it was a waste of time. But I have learnt the joy of tidying up through Marie Kondo, and I have learnt to enjoy cleaning the house through Niitsu Haruko. It’s weird, but it is an essential part of my life now. I don’t even need part-time cleaners now because, their services are very pricey to use regularly and, to be honest, I think I can do a better job than them now (with the help of Mary) XD.

Anyway, here’s the diary of a pokeMOM’s life in one day.

0700-0730: Wake up, make breakfast

The kind of breakfast really depends on how many snoozes it takes when I finally drag myself out of bed. It can be this if I wake right up at first alarm:

Or this, if I had to slam my phone after ignoring it for half an hour.

And then turbo-charge self and quick run the laundry, take out trash, etc.

0745: Forces everyone out of bed

ROAR! The crazy villain at work. Change @cheesiepetits’ diapers and pajamas, spend 5 minutes each to coax both into having mood for the morning. Serve breakfast.

0800: Eat breakfast, watch TV

We eat our breakfast while catching world-important news like how many missiles North Korea just shot at everyone’s face.

0830: Junya goes to school

Papa sends Junya to school and goes to work, mama dashes around to clear the dining table and picks things up the floor. Then go to bedroom to make the bed.

0900: Mary gets to work, while mama shower Sakura

Mary starts work everyday at 9 sharp. In order for Mary to work efficiently I first have to have an obstacle-free floor. And then I have to close the bathroom door because Mary fainted after accidentally drinking spilled bath water from the shower.

Put on fresh diaper and new coordinate.

0930: relax time!!

Forget about the dishes for now. Let it pile, let it pile!!! Dishes never bother me anyway… (lie. They do. T_T)

It’s mama’s TV time!! I usually watch the recorded program I missed the day before on a different Japanese channel + play with Sakura + update/check Instagram.

And then nurse Sakura until she falls asleep. Honestly, I never bothered to sleep-train the second child anymore because… well when they want to sleep, they sleep. Schedule is stressful lol. If need be, I will wear her, bounce around and walk around the house until she dozes off. Good exercise for me.

1030: Sakura naps, mama make lunch.

Typically. This section varies hugely, depending on how carefully I unstrap the baby carrier and how skillful I am to transfer her from my body to the bed. It can mean either heaven or earth lol.

Lunch-making is going to take a looooong time because if Sakura wakes then I’ll have to jump right back to bed and help her go back to sleep again. If she wakes for real then I’ll have to abort cooking.

That’s the reason why I always prefer to wake up a little earlier to make better breakfast (good carb good protein and vitamins), because I can always swap the simpler meal for my own lunch. If I have eaten good breakfast together with Junya, then my lunch can just be a bowl of cereal and milk. And that works perfectly with crazy afternoons like this. Wait is it not afternoon yet?! I genuinely thought we are past noon now. Oh. It’s just ten thirty.

1100: Robots at work

Meanwhile Mary finishes work, and it’s Braava’s turn to mop the floor. I love my robots.

1130: Lunch is ready

Finish preparing Mama’s lunch, which sometimes is also Junya’s dinner. Prepare Sakura’s lunch. Clean the kitchen and wash dishes piled up from morning.

She usually wakes already and I’ll just try my luck to keep her entertained with various improvised “toys” within reach like empty bottles, food containers, snack wrappers, etc.

1200: Sakura and mama eat lunch

Haih got more dishes to wash again. And then the nicely mopped floor has crushed bolo stuck onto it again.

1300: Relax time again!

Feed Sakura (oppai) and play with phone or watch TV, until the baby rubs her eyes again. Go to bed and nua sai with baby. Try not to fall asleep together because I cannot afford to. lol.

1400: FREE TIME!!!!

FINALLY! This is the most precious “me time” of the day. Sakura naps generally for an hour, so it’s time to go on laptop!!!!

But.. but but… I really cannot stand the mess. Excuse me my house is featured on Zaobao ok it cannot afford to look like this HAHAH. Ok. Blog later. I tidy up all the nonsense first.

1445: Sakura wakes and cries

Spend 15 minutes trying to lull her back to nap unsuccessfully. Give up and carry her out to play.

1500: Fold laundry

In our house, we do laundry every single day. Sometimes multiple times a day. I get a shock when friends tell me they only do laundry once a week. If I do that in our home, we would run out of towels, bibs, baby clothes, toddler clothes, wash cloths, and our house on laundry day will look like a flea market.

You know why I pick this time for foldings? Because it’s something I can do sitting down, while playing with Sakura lol. Folding laundry is my favorite housework because I can watch TV/play while doing it. It is the most productive housework, ever.

1550: Make up time.

Yes the baby stays on the floor. Nobody can get in the way of mama’s important self-esteem.

1553: Leave house to buy grocery

Yes. Make up takes only 3 minutes.

I am so glad that the market and Junya’s school are all within walking distance (15 mins). So I get to buy fresh food everyday since I have to go out anyway!

1645: Pick Junya

After getting my daily food supply I walk to Junya’s school and pick him. Then we walk home together. The time spent depends on how many distractions caught his attention. Gatcha gatcha machines/dessert shops/bakery/auto vending machine… It also largely relies on my convincing skill level to talk him out of spending $2 for a toy he’d lose interest after 30 seconds.

1700: Go back home.

You know, I underestimated myself in multitasking. And the weather of Singapore. 3 out of 5 weekdays are raining, and that is when I feel a bit awkward.

People stare at me like they want to offer help but dunno how to help. Because I am strapped with a tired and cranky baby, a very hungry toddler, a million grocery bags, pushing a stroller with one hand, holding a broken umbrella with another hand, and WALKING UPHILL.

(Insta Story to document this significant moment lol)

These are the times when I really think, 我的命好苦.为什么这么苦。。。

But then once I reach home I was like, how dare I say I 命苦。My apartment is kickass gorgeous and I just bought Japanese dessert. My life is perfect. 😀

17:15 Reach home

Put groceries into fridge, give Junya a snack and switch on the TV.

The living room already looks like this T_T.

1720: Cook dinner

This is the most havoc time of all time.

Junya pooped. Sakura calls out for me because she is bored with the toys I gave her. Junya wants a cup of milk after finishing his snack. Sakura now cries because I have been ignoring her. Junya spills his milk.

I cannot remember how many times I washed my hand to handle between soiled diaper/sliced pork/spilled milk/kitchen knife… before I could take this picture. You all owe me.

1800-1830: Eat dinner together

Feed Sakura dinner and watch TV. Thank god Junya now can eat all meals all by himself.

How many times have I watched the TV already? Noooooo… Japanese TV is awesome. I can be glued to it the whole day if I didn’t have all these other things to do!! Japanese TV is more awesome than FB, Instagram, whatever whatever and Nutella all combined.

1850: Clean up dining table

And under the table. Seriously like, how many times do I have to do this? Sometimes the danna already 吩咐 Mary to clean the floor, and I made sure she cleans the floor spotless. Then now it is all sticky with food crumbs again!! Excuse me but it looks very bad on me leh, people will think we never do our job leh, Mary. How??

Let it pile, let it pile… I don’t care, what they going to say! (You can’t, when your toddler keep tugging at your pants.)

1900: Shower Junya.

When possible I’ll wait for the danna to be back before I shower Junya so that Sakura is watched over, but the toddler doesn’t seem to pick his poop time very wisely -_-.

So I place Sakura on the bathroom floor and give her random objects to inspect while turbo-speed shower oniichan. Sakura can pull to stand now, so sometimes she is standing against the door and our door can only be pushed outwards. So meaning if we try to open the door she will fall over. -_____-. When that happens, a naked toddler and a half-drenched mad woman are both stuck in the cubicle for… as long as the baby remains happily standing at the door. -_-

1930: Papa’s dinner

The danna comes back around this time so I serve dinner. Then he has father and son time while mama washes the dishes.

If I’m lucky, Sakura will be happily playing or watching TV with papa. But usually around this time she gets really clingy and tired and sleepy and cranky so she has to be stuck to me.

So sometimes I clean while carrying her.

2000: Brush time for everyone

2030: Sakura’s bed time

WOOHOO!!!

2045: Junya’s special time

难得 meimei is asleep now, Junya gets lovey dovey time with mama lol.

2055: Sakura cries. Put Sakura to bed again and trying hard to get Junya to sleep.

2130: Junya sleep

WOOHOOOOOOOOOO!

2135: Watch favorite TV show

Yeap. Our TV cabinet are two bar stools lolol. Actually the TV is mounted on the wall but the installation was not ver stable so we had to support it with something. Just in case.

2145: Sakura cries. Pause TV show and put Sakura to bed again

2155: Continue TV show. 

2300: Tidy up the house one last time, prepare Junya’s school bag. Prepare tomorrow’s breakfast.

2315: Papa goes to bed. I really really really want to flip open the laptop and blog but my brain is telling me it is going to shut down.

2330: Sleep.

Yeap. So that concludes a day of my life as a pokeMOM.

Wait. Something is missing. Where is mama’s shower time?

Right. I forgot.

HAHAHAHAH

2330: Shower. 

But then the sound of the door/tap/switch/ant’s singing wakes the baby up. She cries. I go to bed and pat her back to sleep.

2350: Shower for real.

Then kepoh a bit on the phone, evolve new Pokemons, watch Instagram cooking videos…

0???: Sleep.

Yeap. That concludes a day of my life as a pokeMOM. How about yours?