Moments

I worked from home for two days in a row.

Thursday’s work-from-home day was planned since last week, since I had only two calls and a ton of work to finish.

It was good because I managed to do what Is planned, but Allie did not nap well. Her naps were 40 minutes each and she was rather grouchy. And yet she wanted to play? 😂

We wondered if it was because I was at home, and I haven’t been working from home the past week.

(And so last night we had a somewhat disastrous party party night, which wasn’t unexpected. 😴😵)

It was a very very busy day and I couldn’t do bedtime with Clarissa because I had some urgent work stuff to send.

So the hubs offered to lie down in bed with her instead.

“But I want Mummy to hold my hand. Daddy, can you go and help Mummy do her work?” She suggested.

We went back and forth, negotiating.

But when Daddy got onto her bed to lie down beside her, she immediately hooked her hands around his arm, happily.

“Daddy, you will continue sleeping here after I fall asleep? You cannot go huh,” she said before pretending to fall asleep..

…and snore in the most exaggerated manner.

Today’s work-from-home schedule was carved out because it’s Teachers’ Day holiday and there is no school for Clarissa.

I had quite a number of meetings I needed to go to but I rescheduled some of them so I could be at home.

I can’t imagine having the helper handling both girls the entire day. She might go mad. 😂

Clarissa was overjoyed when she knew I was going to be at home. We made her promise to play on her own and not cry when I’m in meetings (like she did the last time 😂).

And she really did!

She was sitting on the chair facing her toys and talking to herself. 😂😆

She really wasn’t loud but my colleague could hear her and told me to mute my phone. 😅

She spent the entire morning either coloring or role playing because I was busy and Allie was napping.

She got a little emo by late morning but she managed to control herself.

Luckily this girl was up from her nap and Jiejie had company again.

The two of them simply rolled around on our bed and had fun.

Clarissa said to me, “Ok Mummy I’ll come out when I’m feeling better.”

👌👍✌

While I had my lunch, they huddled around watching stories from an app.

There is a lot of space in the living room, girls.

Not sure why they had to watch underneath the dining table.

Lunch was.. *drums roll* Char Siew Rice!

Omg.

This was a re-enactment of what happened when we went down to get lunch.

When we were still about 80 metres away from the stall, i.e. the stall was nowhere in sight, she sniffed the air and exclaimed, “I can smell char siew rice! So nice!”

😂😆😂

As we approached the stall, she noticed that there was no queue. Usually there’d be at least 2 to 3 people queuing up.

“Mummy, there is no one queuing for char siew rice!” She exclaimed.

I stopped us in our tracks.

“Oh dear is the stall not open today?” I asked her before walking ahead to check.

Her face fell. Totally.

I took two steps and saw that the lights were on and eggs were on display.

“Oh! It’s open!!” I announced.

Her face lit up and she laughed in relief.

叉烧饭有这么好吃吗?

😆😆😆

Told the CSR Uncle (who’s still keeping the fish on display) about it and he laughed.

(And gave us a lot of rice and a lot of meat.)

I showed her how she looked like when I suggested that the stall might not be open, and she laughed.

Kept doing it over and over again.

Lol.

And then I gave her a shower and prepared her for a nap.

(While Allie was busy in the other room trying to climb up the fire truck. 🙈)

I had a call at 130pm and she was still rolling around the bed. I said I had to go but she asked me to do my work beside her.

So I did and started my call while she continued to fidget and roll around.

But sometime in the midst of talking, I turned and saw her, sound asleep.

Like this.

This is about as snug as Mama Duck can get. 😂

I left her in the room and went outside to continue taking my string of calls.

Allie woke up from her nap and sat in the playpen.

Like this.

Just quietly rolling around and sitting up and picking up different toys and putting them against her ear.

“Ahbababa! Ehmamama!” She said. “Deredere!”

Sometimes I’d look up from my call and she’d look up from hers, smile at me, and continue to chat on her various phones.

It was a nice, quiet afternoon save for a few moments when she decided to stand up and loudly declare a few lines of gibberish before sitting down again.

Jiejie woke up from her nap and went about playing on her own (and sometimes with Meimei) until it was dinner time for both of them.

I continued working at the table while they ate.

When they were done eating, Jiejie took out her camera while Meimei was drinking water.

And I managed to capture the photo of the week:

So cute, and so precious.

Meimei was nonchalantly drinking water and biting the straw when Jiejie said, “Allie look here! Smile!”

Meimei immediately pulled the straw out of her mouth and smiled for the camera.

What a simple and lovely day.

Even though I’ve been drowning in work, I feel grateful for little moments like this, that complete me.

😊😊😊