Mummy, I want to go back to Singapore!

When Beth starts on this topic, I've learnt to hold off the initial panic and pause long enough to ask Why.

It wasn't always this way. When we were in Melbourne for about a month and she first said this (in that whiny way that you know spells trouble), I was terrified that perhaps we'd made the wrong decision coming over. But it turned out that she had a very simple, innocent reason for wanting to go home.

Apart from the fact that her friends are in Sg. And that she misses her childcare centre friends and teachers and the routine.

The single most important reason she misses Sg is - "I want to climb up and down stairs."

She misses our maisonette!

We're living in a one-storey unit right now. As far as I'm concerned, it's perfect in every way, but Beth feels the lack of a 2nd storey sorely. After 9 years climbing the stairs and having to clean 2 levels, I've no plans to move to another 2-storey home. Not ever.

As a compromise, we've promised to consider a bunk bed so she can sleep on the top level and Elisabeth (for now) can sleep on the bottom bunk. The ladder will provide plenty of up-and-down activity for her.

Bonding Over Bubble Wrap

Beth and I had a lovely mother-daughter moment last night, sitting side by side on the edge of the long bath (me with some trepidation) and swishing our feet in cold water. I was trying to reduce the oedema on my elephant feet (it's Week 35 and the swelling has gotten really bad this week); she was just wanting to hang out with me. So there we were, bursting bubble wrap, with her grinning at me ever so often and both of us just revelling in a girlie moment which for once did not include Daddy.

Life doesn't get better than this. As Larry Julian says, you can experience a life full of joy with an empty bank account (that's us - almost!) as easily as with millions.

Why Wasn't I There, Mummy?

What do you say when your child asks why she wasn't present at your wedding? :)

Beth asked this one day. She was upset that she hadn't been the flower girl!

"I want you and Daddy to get married again so Mei Mei and I can be the flower girls. I will hold Mei Mei's hand and we will walk down the aisle."

"Sure....once Mei Mei is old enough to walk confidently by herself....maybe when she's 3?"

I related this to my cousin and she went, "That is so sweet!"

The Supper Girl

As I was making myself a nightcap (caffeine-free camomile tea actually) just now, Beth emerged from the bedroom, and giggling, came up to me and announced, "THE SUPPER GIRL IS HERE!"

This was a follow-on from our dinner conversation. I had chided her for her bad habit of not finishing her meal and afterwards begging for supper/tea. Here she was again, asking for her fave: bread with Nutella, at 10.42 pm! (We bought a loaf of thick sliced white sandwich bread from Safeway yesterday and I have to admit it's the best of the lot so far - thick, chewy, and it doesn't flake when you try to spread stuff on it. There's just a coupla slices left now.)

I ragged Beth about turning into a pumpkin (the term my mum used when she somehow got wind of Beth's new eating habits) and said I'd have to put her out in the garden with Scottie. Another fit of giggling and "tsk!" (one of a long list of disapproving expressions she likes to use).

No Hard Foods Allowed!

At lunchtime today, Beth watched with concern as I munched away on an apple.

"Mummy, you cannot eat hard things when you're pregnant. If you eat hard things, they go down to Mei Mei and she won't be able to eat them because she has no teeth."

Food for thought....

Train Up A Child In The Way He Should Go

The Bible says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, so that when he is old, he will not depart from it."

But what of the stories of children of godly parents who grow up and fall into sinful lifestyles, or simply backslide and fall away from God?

At church today, I was reminded of this when chatting with a lovely elderly gentleman. We were talking about his siblings interstate and back in England (where he's originally from), and the topic shifted to his son. He sadly commented that his son had stopped going to church because his wife had no time for church. Apparently both of them work long hours at different times, which makes for little time as a family.

And then he brought up the verse, sighed and expressed the hope that perhaps when his son was old, he would come back to God.

That made me think. God does work in mysterious and powerful ways, and His timing and wisdom are not ours. Perhaps that verse is meant not just to encourage parents to do all they can to influence their children for the Lord when they are young. Perhaps it is also to reassure them that the Heavenly Father is always willing to welcome home the prodigal son, how ever long he has been away, even if He has to wait till the latter is "old" (by which time the earthly parent would no longer be around).