All About Your Child

Time and time again, we go through every day or week, doing the same things, seeing the same people over and over again…we drag our heavy feet as if they weighed a thousand tons to do what we were already so used to doing…what am I saying? Routine…

Surprisingly, though many complain they are sick of what they do every day or every week, they are actually quite comfortable doing the mundane stuff, for the simple fact that it is predictable. Seriously, how many of you like New Stuff happening every single day? To get you on your feet and pump your energy up to the highest level the moment you open your eyes? And stay at cloud nine every second of the day? I guess I don’t see many hands raised.

So, many of us like to go through simple living. We are not too much like popcorns, popping at every little thing that we see, hear or feel. In fact, such things throw us off-balance, though so often we complain our lives are too boring, yet, deep inside us, we are not prepared to handle such intense excitement.

I am definitely the ambassador of the ‘many of us’ I mentioned above. Though uninteresting as it may seem sometimes, I still love routines. But again, if you have a 3 year old and 4 year old in your house 24/7, you are definitely in the training ground for extraordinary living. So I’m lucky, I have additional spice added to my plain and unattractive plate of rice to keep me away from robotic lifestyle.

Every Sunday, I get to spice up my life to the fullest when I go over to my mother-in-law’s place where all her children and grandchildren meet. It is family day for us. With the 2 old folks, 3 pairs of parents and 6 bubbly kids running around, you can hardly rest and can be quite chaotic at times.

Once a week, I am the nanny of 6 children. My father-in-law would be playing Chinese Chess with my 2nd brother-in-law; My 2nd sister-in-law would chat with me if the kids agree to spare me a few minutes, otherwise she would be watching Taiwanese dramas; My mother-in-law would be in the kitchen the whole time, whipping up yummies after yummies; My eldest brother-in-law is a sleeping-king, he sleeps right after lunch and wakes up at 6.45pm to fetch his wife back from the factory, where she works.

So with my mind constantly thinking at high speed, to entertain kids from age 1 to 7; and with my mouth always moving, be it talking, singing, laughing or eating: and with my hands carrying one kid after another, it is not difficult to imagine how impossible it is to rest on every Sunday and even easier to picture my exhausted look, slouching in the van, with my husband behind the wheels and my boys still high-spirited at the backseats, when we leave at 9pm.

Though completely burnt-out mentally and physically, with a stomach full of goodies, I still treasure every moment at my in-law’s place. I know, I am confident that when the day comes, the 60 plus, white haired, old woman and man, are no longer around, this routine will stop and maybe the closeness we have now between the rest of us, will be gone too….its sad but this day will come.

Till that day arrive, while they are still alive and kicking, I will treasure every Sunday as if it’s the last.

This post is inspired by Nuffnang, Thank You!

SOURCE: Epidemiology, May 2008.

There was a study done in New York, Reuters Health, which reports that indulging in chocolate during pregnancycould help ward off a serious complication known as preeclampsia.

Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is rich in a chemical called theobromine, which stimulates the heart, relaxes smooth muscle and dilates blood vessels, and has been used to treat chest pain, high blood pressure, and hardening of the arteries, Dr. Elizabeth W. Triche of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and colleagues write.

Preeclampsia, in which blood pressure spikes during pregnancy while excess protein is released into the urine, has many features in common with heart disease, the researchers add…..

…..Women who ate five or more servings of chocolate each week in their third trimester of pregnancywere 40 percent less likely to develop preeclampsia than those who ate chocolate less than once a week….

…..Theobromine could improve circulation within the placenta while blocking oxidative stress, or it could also be a stand-in for other beneficial chemicals found in chocolate, Triche and her team note in the May issue of Epidemiology.

“Our results raise the possibility that chocolate consumption by pregnant women may reduce the occurrence of preeclampsia,” they write. “Because of the importance of preeclampsia as a major complication of pregnancy, replication of these results in other large prospective studies with a detailed assessment of chocolate consumption is warranted.” – See Complete Report Here

If you have read My Profile, you would know that I am a chocolate lover to the core. To be honest, I need (notice I didn’t say I want) to pop in at least one or two chocolates everyday to complete my day, even if its M&Ms, so use your wildest imagination of my fridge…*laugh*. Its a craving. Its an addiction. Its like coffee to my husband and to Slouching Mom. Without one cup a day, they feel empty in the fulfillment section of their souls.

So this news came as an encouragement for my desire. Many say its too heaty, causes pimples, makes you fat, too much carbohydrates, nah….for me, I just love it! Ooops! Let me clear the air, I’m not pregnant in anyway or any sooner or may never be pregnant again, so I know this news doesn’t really concern me, just felt like sharing, maybe, just maybe, you might be a chocolate lover too and IS pregnant right now as you read, so go, eat more now.

This was what we had yesterday….chocolatie Mother’s Day Cake….

To all my pregnant mommies, especially Lynn, go on, grab a hearty piece…*wink* Oh, I’m not that unkind, the currently non-pregnant mommies come and eat too….

I had a great Mother’s Day, simply because my boys were angels yesterday, that’s what makes Mother’s Day special, isn’t it? Your kids listen to what you say without you repeating a thousand times and the best part was, I didn’t need to break up any fights yesterday!