My babysitter is driving me up the wall

First my son and now my babysitter. Isn't life great?! :-(

Every morning when I send my son to her or when we pick him up in the evening there will definitely be 'things' to hear. Sometimes it will be the same 'things' over and over and I am just so so bored. And for some reasons she only targets me, not papa.

My babysitter told me she has many years of experience being a babysitter and during her younger days she even worked in a playschool/kindergarten so she knows all about babies, kids and playschool. I honestly don't know what she knows. All I know is she likes to use all the 'old school' methods in bringing up kids. Some I am fine with, some I am not but similar to having a maid, I just have to close one eye, sometimes I close both eyes.

There are so many things that she do or say which drives me literally up the wall. You be my judge:

1. likes to use powder on my kids, both my kids. Said lotion is bad for them. Go figure!
2. thinks she's my breastfeeding guru. Suggests that my way of storing, warming and transporting milk could be the cause of Zac's constant throw up after feeds. To me it was nothing alarming as he's constantly growing, to her, it seems like the end of the world. She even suggests that Zac could be intolerant to breast milk!
   
3. wants to give water to Zac who is 100% on breast milk. Said she is worried that he might not want water when he's on formula next time if we don't start the habit now (this is ok la, I can accept)
   
4. prefers to let babies wear their mittens until 6 - 8 months old. Said she didn't want them to scratch their faces. When will Zac be able to learn how to grip? I also don't know.
5. 3 years ago - your daughter got a lot of wind. 3 years later - your son got a lot of wind. Could it be the breast milk?, you didn't feed them properly?, you didn't burp them? Seems to be my fault all the time!
6. prefers scheduled feeding. Said it will be better and easier for us (I wonder if it's easier for her or for us?!). She is trying to train my son to drink every 3 hours. Told her it's breast milk, some diluted some thick so follow his demand. She said can be trained. My poor boy.
   
7. whine and whine. Everyday telling me I have a very difficult boy and I am going to suffer when he grow up. Said the same thing during Hayley's time and now she said my boy is worst than Hayley.
   
8. against child specialist. She claimed that doctors doesn't know everything.
9. change her opinion or facts very frequently. I asked her to give Hayley cheese, one a day will be ok. She said cheese is not good for kids, too salty and I should not give her everyday. But everyday when I pick Hayley up, she's eating cheese... and this is just one of the many incidences.
   
10. spoil my kids - Hayley at age 3 is very choosy with food. I try to force her to eat everything at home and she will tell me not to force her. Asked me to be patient as she will change when she grow up. If she can advise me as such, I wonder what Hayley is eating when she's at her place? I don't dare to think.
    

The list can go on and on. I am sure some of you will be wondering why I am still sending my kids to her when I am so unhappy with her. Well there are several reasons:

1. she is the only babysitter I know and she charged a very reasonable price
   
2. although she isn't perfect, I know she love my daughter (will need to give her some more time to love my son). This is the most important factor to me.
   
3. she is flexible and easy to deal with ie not calculative.
4. my daughter seems to be happy going to her place indicating that she is well treated (you need to be worried if your kids refused to go to the babysitter's as something could be wrong)
   

I am feeling so much better after pouring these out.. thanks for reading :-)

My boy is driving us up the wall

Don't know what is wrong with Zac. Since last week (ie since we've placed him at the babysitter's), he's been very difficult. Every time after his feeds he will be a smiley and happy baby but 1 hour down the road he showed signs of sleepiness but then will not sleep and keeps screaming and shouting (without tears), like sounds of protests! Unless we carry him, he just won't stop. I really miss my old Zac :-(

We've tried rocking him in the bassinet, we've tried carrying and rocking him manually, we've tried the sarong (this works only sometimes) and we even tried putting him on his tummy and patting him... but most of it won't work. He will scream and shout until he gets so tired that he finally falls asleep.

Could it be that the babysitter carried him too much at her place?

Well she did complain to me that he's very difficult to handle. He keeps crying when he's sleepy but just won't go to sleep (she said the same thing to me everyday!).

What is wrong with my boy la? What is it that he wants? Haiz... I am going insane soon.

Birthday celebration at school

Her birthday cake

All the cute faces

Look at all the excited faces, priceless :-)

Goodie bags for her friends... I told her 'mummy made this for you so you can give to your friends on your birthday. It's your present to your friends'.

Then she stared at me, wide eyed and smiled, and then hugged and kissed me and said 'you did this for me????? thank you mummy'.

She received a card signed by all her friends and a cute little birthday present from her headmistress.

As parents are not allowed in school, the teachers helped with the photo taking and making sure the kids had a fun time.. thank you teachers :-).

Happy 3rd Birthday Hayley

We celebrated Hayley's 3rd birthday, just the 4 of us on Sunday (instead of her actual day today) and I'll let the photos do most of the story telling:

Lunch at McD, her choice

Dessert of her choice

Her birthday present from me, her first doll (believe it or not?)

Seen here hugging 'Bubbles', the name we gave her doll.

I love the message on the shirt! LOL

And she got an angpow from papa... boring....

Her birthday cake that costs me RM31! All because it has 2 hearts in it and it is for Valentine's Day. I bought another similar one for her school and it is at least 3X bigger than this one (it is approx 0.8kg) and it cost me only RM39!

Ms Poser

As we sang her the birthday song, she was so shy (and happy) that she clung on to my thighs to hide her face.

Family photo, papa is obviously the cameraman

Blowing out the candle

Our dinner plan was ruined by the sudden heavy downpour that lasted till rather late. In the end we had Maggie Mee at home (sigh). It was my 2nd time feeding the unhealthy Maggie Mee to Hayley (the 1st was about 2 weeks ago) and she loved it to bits. I am quite sure she had it before at the babysitter's judging from her reaction. She almost finished 1 pack all by herself.

Today, she will be having a small party at school. I've prepared the cake, the camera and the goodie bags. Will share the photos later.

Lastly, happy 3rd birthday baby. You are now '3'. Papa, mummy and Zac loves you!!

Maid oh maid, where are you???

It has been almost 4 weeks and our maid is still not here.. SIGH SIGH SIGH...

Tomorrow I am going back to work and I will have to take leave again when she arrived to properly guide and train her. I hope my boss won't kill me.

We actually paid additional so we can get the maid in 2 weeks and we paid our deposit on January 18th but now it's been 4 weeks. So how? Do we ask her to pay us back the additional since she didn't keep her promise of delivering the maid in 2 weeks?

I have been in touch with her quite often and she kept telling me they're having issues with the long holiday, with flight arrangements and immigration. I know she's definitely not pulling my leg but I am just so upset that the entire arrangement is not going according to my plans.

Time to let go..

Tomorrow Zac is officially going to the babysitter's and I am already beginning to miss him. Sigh.. why does it have to be so hard everytime! I think I am going crazy. It is not like I am not going to see him in the evening but still I find it so hard to let go.

We are sending him a week early (I start work on the 14th) to give the babysitter and myself sometime to adjust. She and her husband needs to manage a 3 year old (half day), a 6 months old and a 3 months old full day. I really really hope she can cope.

The last 3 months although tiring, has been very fulfilling to see how he has grown. Every minute spent with him was a joy. I really envy those mothers who can quit their jobs to stay home permanently with their kids. Teaching them, loving them and guiding them the right way, all the way.

Sigh.. I am so going to cry tomorrow and papa already told me he didn't want to come with me tomorrow as he didn't want to see me cry. How not to miss this la....

GONG XI FA CAI

We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone GONG XI FA CAI...

Note: this card is Hayley's very first art project from school. I would like to think that she contributed in making it but she kept telling "no wor mummy, teacher made this".. sigh... why

does she have to be so honest ah?