I have been back to work for 3 weeks now. What’s the hardest thing? I have to say it is hardest when both boys are clingy and want my attention at the same time when I return home from work. It is perhaps natural for them to feel this way since they have not seen me for the whole day. I wish I can attend to them both at the same time, but I usually can’t. One of them will end up crying for a little while I try to appease the other. It is draining because I’m already tired from work and my patience is wearing thin by then, and yet I have to control myself not to shout at them. That’s hard work. I’ve got to pray for more patience and strength.
On the brighter side of things, the boys seem to have settled down into their new routine quite well. Athan had a tough first week when I first went back to work. He was not used to my mother-in-law and her home. He cried at nap times, at bath time (which he loves), at nappy changing time etc. Poor thing. He was not happy. Things changed for the better this week. When I arrived to pick him up after work, I found him crawling happily and playing happily with my mum-in-law. He whinged a little when he saw me, but my mum-in-law managed to appease him. That’s a great improvement. As for Calvin, he is very used to his child care place now and so the change did not affect him much. The thing that he was not used to is seeing me leave the house for work in the morning and he is not coming with me. It took him a while to understand that he can’t follow me when I go to work. These days, when I leave the house for work in the morning, he says to me “bye ma ma! see you next week!”. I guess he does not understand what “next week” means yet. 🙂 He is also doing great at 3-yr-old kindy. Thank God. He looks forward to going to *school* and he always tell me “Calvin hen guai, mei you ku (calvin has been good, no crying). One other thing that he loves about going to school is his lunch bag. For some reason, he is very excited about eating lunch from his own lunch box and with his friends. He watches me when I pack his lunch in the morning and he even tells me what to put in the bag. 🙂 As for Robin, I think he is doing great too. He takes care of Athan on Mondays and cooks dinner on the days that I work. I really appreciate the help.
Work wise, things are picking up at my work place. The project that I am involved in is picking up on speed and so in a way it has helped me to get my drive back. Some days are still hard to get into the right mindset for work, and remember the science and statistics that I used to know. This is something I need to work hard on. Thank God that the first meeting I had with our collaborators for the project went really well. There’s more work ahead and probably more stress too *sigh*. That’s working life. Well, one step at a time, one day at a time. That’s how I am going to deal with my work.
I’ll write about other issues at another post. For now, do please continue to pray for us. Thanks to those of you who have written personal emails to me to encourage me. I really appreciate it.