A Pregnant Pause

I was dithering on whether to attend the playgroup session or not as:

• I was tired out from a lunch date with my Indian neighbour yesterday and
• the hosting Mum’s house is very far – imagine Green Lane to Batu Ferringhi. To save on taxi cost, I planned to take a bus to the ferry and then a taxi from there. However, I didn’t hear back from them the bus nos. to take.

I woke up at 7 am and told myself, “I’m just going to get ready for breakfast and lunch as usual. If I can get everything done in time, then I’ll go.”

As it turns out, by 8 am, I got the rice cooked and a beef stew in the crock pot. By 9 am, both Lucas and I were dressed which only left his backpack of nappies, wipes, hankies, snacks etc.

As I was tired already, I decided to take the taxi, which costs me RMB69 to and fro! I can hear Hubby nagging already that I can’t do this every week…

This first session was hosted by a Filipina and I was glad I got there early. There were other mums from China, Japan, the US, Australia and Africa (no chance to really find out). There were also tots who were brought there by their Filipina maids! I’m glad I was there early or I’d be mistaken as one too…

Here they are all gabbing away and then munching away at the Spanish omelette (yummy, I have to try my hand at this!), cheesecake, ice-cream, chocolate chip cookies and other finger foods.

The house had toys strewn everywhere and Lucas was at home at once – playing with toy trains, cars, dinosaurs, balls, crawling through a mini-tunnel etc. The kids are mostly 2-3 years old (one Mum brought her shy 1 year old) and they all minded their own business, except for the usual tug-of-war over toys or accidentally stepping on each other’s toes or bumping into each other.

Usually, they just hang out playing with toys but this Mum wanted to try something different. She spread out a sheet of white paper on a wall and let the kids paint with brushes, rollers or their fingers/hands.

Everyone thought she was very *brave* because it could become a huge mess – luckily, she’s got 2 Filipina maids, 1 Chinese maid, 1 Chinese teacher and 1 kindy teacher to help her contain the chaos.

Here’s Lucas and his new pals enjoying themselves. Amazingly, my Putonghua connected me instantly with the teachers (grins). It really pays to know an extra language!

Or could it be teacher telepathy as I helped to encourage the kids to come experiment? Since I had to supervise Lucas anyway, may as well be useful, right? 

Here’s the masterpiece and the little maestros. Check out the imbalanced boy:girl ratio. You know why? All the boys’ mothers need an outlet for the little tikes to burn all that energy!

Also, it’s interesting to note that only a few other fellas are not of mixed parentage – the rest are either Chinese-German-Australian-Dutch etc. Many handsome chaps here hehe 

Two sleeping babies were also there and a few of us asked if it’s the second baby (yes) and whether they delivered in Xiamen (yes and no). It was nice to know that other Mums had similar thoughts too, especially a Japanese who said Lucas was “powerful” just like her son when he was 2. She assured me that he’d slow down when he’s 3, phew! She’s *really nice* and I see us getting to know each other better.

1. Little Danish – her maid brought her as her Mum’s working. She didn’t really join in the wall painting and was just happy playing with toys. 2. The host’s son – see how mucky he is? Lucas was happily painting the wall until some dripped on the floor which got him started there. Then, he decided to add some to his pants and socks – that’s when I hauled him to the bathroom! 3. Kor-kor – He was shy maybe coz he’s the oldest but slowly joined in after I showed him the paintbrush. 4. The one year old – He was really shy and spent the whole time quietly with his Mom. He smiled when I snapped his photo BUT the Camera Ixus was too slow…

Two hours of good fun for toddlers and Mums! I’d planned to set up a playgroup in Penang and am quite happy to find one here. Looking forward to host one of these sessions next hehe