Slowly but surely...

I was reading my sister-in-law’s blog about how fast her son is growing. And wishes that he wouldn’t grow up as fast as he is doing right now.

I guess this is what every parent goes through. It IS amazing how fast our kids grow. Sooner and later, we will discover that it is about letting go. Letting our kids grow up. These things creep up on you. Slowly but surely... First they start walking... then they start reading... very soon they start doing things that will further amaze you! As a parent, I know that we will go through different phases as we bring up our kids. And each phase has its own challenges. We were at Kiddy Palace just the other day and as we walked through the bottles and diapers sections I remarked to my BH about how we will no longer go through ‘that’ phase of buying those stuff again...with a tinge of sadness...

Just the other day, our two princesses did a ‘first’. We wanted some cheese to make dinner but it had turned bad (that is another story by itself, right dear!?). So I asked Kakak whether she wanted to go down with Adik to buy some cheese for us and both excitedly said, “Yes!”!!! And so, armed with $10, lots of advice about holding each other’s hands and not running, etc, we sent our girls out to the ‘world’ on their own. Oh, and I gave Kakak a walkie-talkie too! ;) We kept an eagle eye on them as they passed through the fountain area and disappeared into the club house. I had good comms with Kakak all the way. By the time both reached home, both were beaming with joy at their accomplishment!

I went for a talk by David Chiem, CEO of MindChamps at CMPB the other day and one of my take-aways from that very uplifting and inspirational talk was about creating ‘moments’ with your children. It is not so much about spending a lot of time with them, which of course is important, but more of creating ‘moments’ that they will remember for life.

What we practise in our family are ‘moments’ we hope our girls will remember for life. One of these ‘moments’ we picked up was from none other than Obama himself, from an article in the June 09 edition of Reader’s Digest. During dinner, which we insist on everyone sitting at the dining table, we would ‘play’ ‘Highs and Lows’. We take turns describing the highs and lows of our day to the rest. And we will then summarise what the other person has said. It is a very good way for the girls to do their own self-reflection of the day’s events and for us to discuss them further. And it teaches them to listen. They are so used to it now that they look forward to it and can’t wait to tell us their highs-and-lows! Another ‘ritual’ that we do as a family is to have a ‘Games Night’ on one of the weekday nights. Obviously the girls look forward to this and would do their homework, prepare their beds and school bags for the next day before they play the games, which they choose. We play Scrabble Junior, Monopoly Junior, Zingo, etc. I love these games too for it teaches the girls how to follow the rules, play fair, win and lose graciously. Another ritual we do at least once a week is the ‘Reading Night’ where we take turns reading aloud to the rest. This gives the girls confidence to ‘address’ a crowd and of course, to enjoy a good story at the same time! My ‘thing’ with them that I will not fail to do if I’m at home before they go to bed is to read them a chapter of a storybook. This takes about 15mins and they just love it! It gives me the opportunity to explain things to them. Adik will not fail to ask words that she does not know. We have finished the whole series of the Faraway Tree (one of my all time favourite book), a book on the Wishing Chair and many other shorter stories. I’m currently going through “The 7 Habits of Happy Kids” with them, dispensing to them some of life’s lessons at the same time!

Oh and another thing from David’s talk is that parents seldom say how proud they are of their kids. They may love them and say so but there is a difference between loving them and being proud of them. Kids need this encouragement. So, I personally, will always look for opportunities to say how proud I am of my girls. And of course, the recent ‘proud’ moment we had was when Kakak passed her NASSA Bronze Swimming Test. I was heartened by the effort she put in into passing her test. She told me that, “I told myself that I want to pass and that I want to do well!” You go girl! The mind IS an amazing thing...

Here’s a poem to sum up this entry’s topic...

It wasn’t too long ago

It wasn’t too long ago
I held you in my arms
Softly whispering in your ears
Allah’s name and His Greatness

It wasn’t too long ago
I would wake up in the dead of night
To comfort you when you cry
Until you drift off to sleep

It wasn’t too long ago
I would carry you in my arms
And lullaby you to sleep
Exhausted from the day’s play

It wasn’t too long ago
That you couldn’t swim
But now, my princess
Has passed her swimming test!

It wasn’t too long ago
That you couldn’t spell
But now, my princess
Devours books with gusto

It wasn’t too long ago
That you couldn’t play the piano
But now, my princess
Plays it with such confidence

As you go through
The trials and tribulations of life
And its pains and joys
Know that whatever happens
Whatever will be
I will always be there for you
I will always love you...