Thanks to all mummy friends

Time flies and our precious boy is 1 year 4 months and 1 week+ old now. He's a big toddler and no longer a baby, although he still has a chubby baby face. ^_^

I looked back at Renzo's growth so far and realized that I have not put in too much efforts to cultivate our boy, well I guess I am just not a mummy who will sacrifice everything including my personal life for my kid. I know a few friends who are like that, including my own twin sister.

But I am grateful that I have a group of wonderful mummy friends that I got to know through internet, I have not met any single one of them in person but they've been giving me loads of support and advice. I think Renzo should be thankful to these aunties one day when he reads this post too!

I talk to this mummy friend often because her boy is as chubby as Renzo and I love to look at his photos as he is simply so adorable. So when I was torn between staying at home to look after Renzo or getting a new job after my retrenchment, she gave me tremendous support and without her advice, probably I will not find such a nice job and start this new chapter of my life.

When I couldn't decide on Renzo's pre-school, another two mummies sent me personal messages on Facebook to give me suggestions on what to look out for. Our kids are born around same time so they understand my concerns and problems the best.

I got to know another mummy, whom I contacted only once via Facebook (yup Facebook again, LOL), because of this video clip she posted online: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=387280521008&comments , For those of you who couldn't view it, it is a clip of her 2 years+ old boy learning phonics, he could blend the alphabets together and make the sound of a word, and even knows the meaning. So I quickly contacted the mummy and asked what kind of enrichment class is his boy attending. Amazingly, it is all through self-teaching and she recommended this set of Leapfrog DVD to me. I have to say this is probably the best gift we ever bought for Renzo so far. He picked up his ALPHABETS from A - F, and some others like M, O, S, Z, etc, NUMBERS from 1 - 10, 14, 18 somehow, MONTHS like August, October, SEASONS like Summer, and DAYS like Tuesday all by himself after he started watching the DVD from about 10 months old till now. And he could even say a few words together to express his needs clearly, such as "go out, take bus", "baby chair, sit down, eat".

Lastly I found this fabulous blog written by Natalie (finally can mention the name of the mummy as I got her permission, kekee), http://preciouscheryl.blogspot.com/2009/11/josiah-montessori-graduation-annual.html , I suggest all parents should spend some time and read through her blog. Her posts were rather short but the content is great, and the pictures and videos she took speak a thousand words. Look at the progress of her precious girl, I am absolutely blown away. And I was so touched that she sent me emails of pages long and shared with me about how she taught her girl and made plans for the benefits of her growth and especially education. I respect her truly for devoting her time to her girl's early education. It is not easy for working parents to set a routine with their kids for crafting / reading / singing / drawing, etc every single night. And I fully agree with her in finding an academic-driven pre-school for Renzo that can build a strong foundation and keep him enthusiastic in learning at the same time. So the rest of his spare time, he could relax and enjoy his childhood, go for enrichment classes such as swimming, art or even golf, to have fun rather than academic stuff like phonics or maths.

I start to believe that ALL mummies are doing their best to provide their children a great future, although there's no guarantee on the result, they will still do it instinctively. And they are always willing to share their insights, as being mummies, they hope for the best for every kids. Kudos to all my mummy friends for a brilliant work done!!