Wednesday 21 May 2008

Sarongs and Labor of Love


There was a black out just now for about an hour, 2.30-3.30am. I just got the boys back into our bed.

About 2.30 I woke up and the whole place was in darkness and such silence you could hear a pin drop. No humming or buzzing or anything electronic or mechanical. No electricity.

Gadget daddy came into the room, probably that was what woke me also.
"No electricity?"

"Yeah. And I was working on something for tomorrow." So he called the electric company to make a report. Then fell asleep almost instantly.

I fell asleep almost immediately too, only to be woken up 5 minutes later by Max. He was crying and already on all four. I figured it was the heat that got to him.

So I took him downstairs to let him sit in his sarong swing while Mommy swing him as he had a snack of a biscuit and some water to wash it down.

Then Micah made some noise upstairs, so a second trip for Mommy to bring down, this time a sleeping boy, into the swing. I had pulled off their pyjamas tops and now rubbed a little water on their arms and necks and ears. This is so effective in keeping one cool in the heat like this.

I stood between the two swings and swung them for the next hour in the light of an emergency lamp. So boring. I hear snorings all around me. I would have picked up a book except there was not enough light for proper reading. I thought of people in the stone age cooking with stone pots and open fire and scribbling and drawing on walls while waiting for their food to cook. Thank you, Ben Franklin, for making our life so pampered and so dependent on electricity.

Still swinging the boys, I contemplated on how we Moms pamper our young ones and it goes unnoticed by them.
Hindsight: How our parents would have pampered us in ways that had gone unnoticed by us.


Five minutes into this exercise and I had to wear my sarong across the chest and plaster some water on my shoulders and ears. Hmmm... the boys and I in our sarongs. :)

I was on the verge of hopping into the bathroom for a quick splash when, Viola! All the humms and buzz exploded trough the darkness. Phew! No more in the stone age.

So back upstairs, go turn on the air-con first, then back downstairs to turn off everything Gadget-daddy had left on before bringing up the boys. Amazingly both kept on sleeping with no fuss.

Then I sat in front of the computer.

5 comments:

JLow said...

You are right, things that mothers (and fathers!) do for kids, do tend to go unnoticed.

It is who we are today that remains of what it is/was that they did for us while we were relying on them.

Moomykin said...

jlow,

being a parent sure makes us appreciate our parents more, despite all our differences.

Ann said...

Wau...your 2 boys can still fit into the sarong? And the movement mummy's makes must be so conforting to lull them back to sleep in whatever heat!

The action of parent has to be done out of love....have seen so mnay parents act and then expect and then get disappointed...

hissychick said...

Yes...the things parents do for their littles ones. Last night toddlerdaddy was up with A once and E three times (I was too ill) helping them back to sleep due to the sudden change in weather- it's COLD here!

Our girls mught not remember their daddy rocking them gently in his arms...but I will :)

Moomykin said...

ann,

Sometimes due to dreams and nightmares, the boys would also request to be in their swing in the middle of the night.


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hissychick,

Yes, we the parents will alway remember these moments of sweat and sweetness. :)