Aloha Friday #15

The question today is for moms/dads with daughters:

At what age do you consider having your darling daughter’s ears pierced?

When we were in Japan, it is not uncommon to see unpierced earrings of women, especially the older generation. My mother in-law and my husband’s grandmother and aunts don’t have piercings. It is also very normal to see school children, even teenagers in high school who don’t have earrings. However, here in Dubai, even babies as young as a month old have their ears pierced, shiny little earrrings on their tiny ears. My daughter have continuously asked me why she has none. She is four years old now and although I didn’t question my decision not to have her ears pierced when we were in Japan because all of her classmates weren’t having any (piercings that is), I am feeling a little bit of pressure now.

Pristine’s classmate’s moms are asking me why. Oh, to answer my own question, I think seven would be ok to have her ears pierced. It seems to be logical - -  she can decide whether she can tolerate the pain in exchange for beauty and she can also select her own first earrings if she likes.

Aloha Friday is a weekly posting all in the spirit of fun and relaxation. No heavy, brain-stormed posts, just ask a simple question for readers to answer in the comments. Visit the Aloha Friday HQ @ An Island Life.

full time mom, working or not working

My co-worker, the other girl (there are only two of us)  in my department filed for a week leave because her two boys are sick. It’s been quite lonely here without her actually. She sits beside me and I miss our little girly chats. She just took off like that without telling me so I was worried and asked for some information. Someone told me that her two children are sick so she has to stay home. Her husband works for the same company but is normally working while she is on leave. Now I know that this is the norm, that aside from the social expectation that mothers should stay at home, the kids want moms than dads when they are sick.

I don’t have the luxury to become a stay at home mom and I am thankful that when Pristine is sick, I have my mother to take care of her, except for the times when I have to drive her to the hospital for checkup or I am not so overloaded with work, then I file for leave. I am lucky to have someone I really trust when it comes to my daughter. It breaks my heart though to see her cry as I walk out the door.

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Don’t you think this is just genius? The babe was wide-eyed, drop jaw surprised to see this when she woke up from her nap!

what is it with men and chocolates?

There are 20 other men in my department. While on some afternoons when I am sleepy and need something to perk me up I eat chocolates, the men drink coffee or tea. I have always wondered why men don’t seem to be caught in the choco craze at all. My husband says he doesn’t like the sticky mud-like substance sticking in his teeth. Imagine he called chocolates mud! 

One time, my husband picked me up from work and brought along the babe. Darling daughter came in the office and to my desk. She caught the attention of my colleagues and they started calling her by her name, and telling her to come close. She did and the men almost simultaeneously opened their drawers and gave the babe what else, but chocolates! I was like, where did that come from?

All the while I thought I was the only one having a sweet tooth in the office and here comes my daughter with loads of chocolates in her small hands! That totally caught me by surprise. These men could become CIA’s.

not sick, just at home

The babe was home yesterday because her school had a half-term break. A half term break for a day only but since she kind of knows she only has two days off every week, yesterday she was puzzled why she had to be at home instead of going to school.

She asked me, “Mom, am I sick?” Funny how children can detect routines.

passion

I feel like I hit a wall with this week’s prompt, passion. I’ve thought about it long and gasped, my life is overly dry because I’m afraid there isn’t anything that I’m specifically passionate about.

I love arts but not to the point of collecting them nor I am planning for a trip to Louvre any time soon. I love music but was not so keen in mastering the piano or guitar when I had the chance. I love cooking and collecting recipes, inventing my own and cooking new menus whenever I can. However, I can still sleep through the night even though our oven is broken so that would mean I am not passionate enough. I don’t even own an apron or the latest state of the art spatula.

I love writing. In fact, I scribble posts and posts ideas whenever I get hold of a pen and a piece of paper. I write whenever I’m inspired and write more whenever I’m not. So does this say that finally, I have a passion? For writing, that is? Nah, because if I am so passionate about it, I could have written a book already.

This writing exercise is fueled by the writing prompt “passion” at Sunday Scribblings.

when renting DVD’s bring toddler sadness

We do not have a TV in our home for almost two years now so believe or not, we have not watched any American Idol, Lost or Grey’s Anatomy. We do, however, rent or buy DVD’s to watch and see the news in streaming videos. We listen to the radio for news flash.

Last week, we borrowed three DVD’s: High School Musical, Superman Returns and Pirates of the Carribean 3. The babe loved the first two and we stopped seeing the Pirates movie just three seconds after the hanging scene. I was excited to see the pirates movie but it is not kid friendly so I had to wait for the kid to sleep. She loved High School Musical so much that  she requested for it over and over again. We had been watching those song clips in youtube and seeing the real thing was really different! She had been smiling from ear to ear after each showing until it was time to return the DVD.

She asked repeatedly, “Why return, mom? Why?” I explained that because we just rented it and it does not belong to us. “But I liked it! Why?”

We took her to the DVD shop (we did not bring her when we rented it) and showed her how people do it. There were people renting and returning. She finally understood and handed the dvd’s to the counter lady saying, “Thank you!”

We learned a lesson today. If we feel that she’s going to really like a movie — particular would be favorites are musicals or any movie with lots of singing and/or dancing, we are going to buy it to add to her collection. She likes singing a lot she would prefer to watch The Sound of Music, The Little Mermaid over Tom and Jerry(we don’t let her watch this, I think this has some violent scenes) anytime.

Aloha Friday #14

What is your child’s favorite bed time story? If you don’t have children, what was your favorite bed time story when you were young?

Pristine loves Hansel and Gretel. I know that is not a good story to read before going to bed, considering one of the characters is a witch but it is the triumph of Hansel and Gretel over the wicked witch in the end that puts a smile on her face every time I read it to her.

Aloha Friday is a weekly posting all in the spirit of fun and relaxation. No heavy, brain-stormed posts, just ask a simple question for readers to answer in the comments. Visit the Aloha Friday HQ @ An Island Life.

the pink house

Pristine keeps on saying she has something for me in her pink house. Pink house? Yeah, the imaginary house she made up in her mind about a couple of months ago. According to her, the pink house has lots of toys and other good stuffs. Most often she whispers to me, “Mama, I have something for you in my pink house”, to which I gladly say, “wow, I’m excited!” Then she beams with pride and scoots off to the next room, take a small toy or book or her paper from school marked ‘Excellent’ and hands it to me.

At this age (she is four), it is not unusual for toddlers to make up imaginary things like castles and princesses, princes that only exist in Disney movies. Pristine loves to associate everything good like Christmas and Christmas presents, nice books, pink dresses and surprise gifts to the pink house. Even Santa lives on a pink house, she says!

Pristine is so good with using her imagination that she also makes shakes, ice cream and a hot cup of coffee with her bare hands. She moves it like she is really doing it then gives me the goods, “Here you go, mom!”

Does your toddler, if you have any, imagine things too?

sweat it