We went for dinner last night. Had Indian Roti Prata. My daughter ordered 2 pieces of egg prata, I had 1 piece of plain prata and dad had 2 pieces of plain prata and tandoori chicken. I had to speak up. "Honey, you cannot have two egg prata. Each piece of egg prata has one egg. So you have 2 egg prata, it means you are having 2 eggs for dinner. That is not healthy." She stared at me, "Why not? I love eggs."

I replied, "You may have eggs but maybe only 3 eggs a week. Not everyday." How do you explain facts about nutrition to a 7 year old? She just completed a worksheet about the types food for the school's health education programme and now I am stuck with words on what to say about the harmful effects of having eating too many eggs in a day.

So with a stern voice, I said to her, "How about mummy have half of your 2nd piece of prata?"

She nodded in agreement. That ended my struggle.

I woke up at 6:00 a.m. this morning. Went to kitchen and wondered what to give my daughter for breakfast before she went out to school. "Should I make her french toast? or Milo?" The thought of having eggs and prata the other night kept playing in my head. I decided to go with freshly squeezed orange juice and a banana.

I think I can be strick to my daughter at times, but whenever it is bedtime or waking up in the morning for school type thing, I harbour fear of becoming dictatorial and demanding. This morning, I literally went into her room with the cup of orange juice and banana. "Honey, time to wake up." And literally fed her in bed. She rubbed her morning stupor off her eyes; in my mind, I only wanted her to get ready on time for school without feeling all stressed out about it. We live in the city and the din never stops. Noise can be stressful.

One of the things I do want her to start learning is to have morning prayers. So I encouraged her to get out of bed, take her ablution and join me for morning prayers. Both of us stood together and we prayed for 5 minutes after she had put on her school uniform (it's t-shirt and shorts today.)

I had made hot milo. The time was 7:00 a.m. Just right to walk out of the house and leave for school.

I imagine there are many parents who have to go through this daily routine like me for many years, maybe even with more than 1 kid at a time. What I do see happening to my daughter is that she learns to grow happy knowing mum is always by her side to support her growth. For her, if I am with her at bedtime and when she wakes up in the morning, her life is full. I see that in the way she waves goodbye to me at the schoolgate and how she insists I stay with her to massage her before she goes to bed. It does make me happy to see her being happy.

The school holiday has ended and a new term begins this week.

If there is any time of day which I feel more of a mum than wife is in the morning. As soon as the alarm rings, I know I have to get ready. Getting ready means attending to myself first. Usually, I will say my morning prayers, turn on the radio and put the kettle on to boil water. I am not a morning person; I like to take my time .... not when I know my daughter has to go to school. So half an hour later, I will enter her room and wake her up. This is the best part of the day....to wake up my own child. I will actually lay down beside her, and massage her feet, my  mind is always thinking, "She's going for a long day at school."

Is it just me or motherly instincts? Does anyone else express her love for their child the way I do? I know my mum does not show love physically. So I kinda want to give it to my daughter whenever and wherever possible. There's a song which we sing all the time. Well it is from a card we got when she was just 40 days old. i read to her the writings on the card all the time, and it soon became a song.

It is entitled "Hush Now Little Baby" but it is not the usual one you know. You can check it out here.

I must be living on Planet Out Of Space cus it sure took me a long long time to arrive here again!

Quite honestly, I have only begun to be able to sit down today as my kid is on a 1 week school break, and is staying at mum's.

Yippee! I am alone now.

MM...where I have been? MM...Lots to tell but just no idea where to begin.

I am still stay at home mum, cooks, cleans, and use the internet as my excuse to getaway from the din at home.....it is in the city so you can always here the sounds of machines from traffic to the elevators, to the occassional clanging at the construction sites. There I hear it again, the neighbour shutting his steel gate next door. Living in the city is very tiring, especially when all you is machine sounds.

We are having good cool weather right now, raining but that is good too.

On a high note, my daughter has joined Primary 2. Last week she ran for the games day with her classmates. On the way to school, (we walk every morning), she said to me as she held my hand, "Mummy, I want to get a silver medal. I already have two gold medals last year." I almost showed an expression of wonder and amazement but decided that if I did, I would dampen her spirits to run. How innocent and sweet my heart spoke. All she wanted is just a silver medal for her collection.

Winning is not everything for her. She is not making any association between winning and the gold medal. She just wants a medal, even if it is 2nd place. And she does. She won the 2nd prize of the 1st event and gold for the 2nd.

She hangs the medals on her neck. She smiles again saying, "Mummy, that is fun." Here's a picture of her collecting her medal from the school principal. She inspires me. Not needing more than our heart desires.

Go for your goals, raising happy kids.