Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

One of the things that we all can never avoid in our lifetime is suffering.

And suffering (or discomfort) will be experienced by everyone, regardless of their religion and spirituality.

Difficulties, discomforts and challenges will sure take place in order for something to ‘move on to a higher level’ or for something to reach a ‘better state’.

Like how we must go through stressful school exams before we can pass and go up another level.

Or how inventors sure go through phases of failures and difficulties before solving their problems and coming up with new inventions.

When we go through a phase of suffering, let’s try to remember – though it sure is hard at the time – that it is not ‘the end’ of everything.

And if we have God as our Lord, we can trust that HE will give us HIS grace and strength to go through all sorts of storms in life.

I heard about the new Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden at Singapore Botanic Gardens and have been wanting to bring the kids there and check it out.

And so when I found out that a friend of mine’s organising a picnic there, I immediately replied I’m in!

And so today, just before 11am, moms and their kids (who mostly got to know each other through Mumcentre) had some quick meals over a picnic first before pushing our prams towards the the children’s garden (for my case, either one walked and the other in the pram, or one’s in the pram and the younger one in the sling).

The weather was warm and quite glary at times, but when it was time for some waterplay fun, it was cloudy and the kids had SO much fun there!

Anyway. I’d sure check out the place again.

But it’d sure be a LATE afternoon visit next time.

PS: Mumcentre’s official photographer came to cover the whole outing and we’re told that the photos will be in their ‘Event Galleries’ page.

Yesterday Vai officially earned the ‘I-can-now-climb-onto-big-chairs’ title (and marked the start of Mommy’s frequent ‘oh-be-careful’ reminders).

Anyway, here’s the step-by-step pictorial guide he’d like to share with other curious toddlers:

I have to admit though that this latest stunt of his gives me a much greater adrenaline rush than seeing him climb our gate all the way up.

And I guess it’s somehow because when he’s on the gate, he’s at least clinging onto it, but when he’s standing on the chair, he likes to let go and just stand as if he’s on a surf board or something!

[and he often wobbles a bit too! Which is the main cause of my heart skipping a beat or two!]

…

So these days, I ensure all chairs are well tucked under the table, so that whenever he tries to pull the chair out and climb on to it, I have a few short seconds to quickly be near him, AND to bring him back down again (after letting him rummage through our dining table’s stuff for a few seconds and telling him how it’s somewhat safer to just play on the FLOOR).

Oh well.

Life’s never plain nor dull when you have kids.

Okay. She’s actually turning 3 years and 8 months in nine days, but I just thought I’ll write a few quick updates about her.

Her terrible three days (unfortunately) still continue till today.

[And btw, heaps of heartfelt thanks to those who shared and sent encouraging emails soon after the ‘Growing Up‘ post on October 18th. You guys brightened up my day!]

Having a mouth ulcer, a brother whose mealtimes are just so challenging and a Mommy with a mild runny nose and headache somehow don’t really help much either.

She refuses to eat much. And when she does, she’d be crying and complaining about the ulcer pain.

She’s now basically more cranky than usual and I just can’t wait for her ulcer and my headache to go away.

Anyway.

Something happened today that frankly REALLY surprised me. In a happy way.

We were at a shopping centre when a balloon sculpture guy went on stage to start his performance. And we stopped to watch.

When the guy called for volunteers from the audience the second time, she apparently raised her hands! And when she’s chosen and called to the stage, she walked and went all by herself!

Remembering how it went when she’s a flower girl two months ago and knowing her character, it was such a big ‘breakthrough’!

She even spoke loud and clear when asked for her name and age!

I was glowing with pride!

When she came back to me a pink rabbit balloon, I told her how happy I was to see her go up there, brave and calm. Wilson called and spoke to her on the phone too afterwards.

By continually encouraging her, we sure hope she learns to believe in herself more and be a little less shy.

The actual process of change itself of course will take quite a while. But we’re just happy to see her little milestone today.

… learning how to self-feed and use a fork can be just a litttleee less messy.

Many people enter marriage with idealistic thoughts of how a marriage ‘should be’.

That there’ll be hardly any arguments. That all exchanged words will always be romantic and sweet. That the home will always be neat and clean because the boyfriends-now-husbands will always proactively help and clean everything up. That our spouse will wake up in the morning always looking fresh and beautiful (?)

If one has such thoughts when they first got married, they’ll be … disappointed.

And it’s really not because marriage itself is ugly. Marriage in itself is in fact beautiful, for it is when two individuals – who promise to stay true and faithful to each other – are united by God in front of His people.

What’s important is that we ought to always remember too that marriage is a union between two unique individuals who are FAR from perfect.

We ought to be realistic. Disagreements will happen. And arguments will take place.

But when both openly communicate, listen and respect each others’ views and feelings, and find a way out that works for both parties, in the end marriage itself can be an enriching experience.

We all have our strengths and weaknesses. And so is our spouse. So our job is to focus more on their strengths, and learn to complement and tolerate their weaknesses.

Yes there will be hurdles in our marriage. But if we let God be the LORD of our household, we can be rest assured that He will always be with our family.

Leading, guiding and showing a way out. Even when there seems to be no way.