Quietly Growing Up

Sometimes it is hard to imagine that my boys were born 7 and 8 years ago. The first years of their lives were filled with dramatic physical and mental growth. The physical growth was very obvious in the first two years when they grew from dependent infants, to crawling babies, to walking toddlers, and then to running boys.

As they reached the primary school years though, we stopped to notice their physical growth. It seems like they are no longer growing as fast as they should, until we found out that their pants are getting shorter. Even the mental growth is not much noticed, as conversation with the boys become more intelligent day by day, and we start to take their intelligence for granted.

This makes me a bit worried about my boys. Are they growing up alright? Will they be independent children? Is their mother pampering them too much? Will they be able to help around the house and manage themselves well, especially after the baby is born, when mommy no longer have the time to fuss over them? Well, as the baby is getting bigger in my tummy, with me getting lazier, out of sudden, the boys go through another spurt of growth. That of independence.

X wakes up in the morning with a mental alarm clock in his head, sometimes even before I have a chance to make his breakfast. He even learns to make his own breakfast. This is a great surprise to mummy. And W is determined to improve his studies, asking me to send him to tuition everyday of the week until he finishes school. This come from someone who enjoy relaxing in front of the TV in the mornings before going to school.

Over the weekend, the boys were so motivated to get the new Prince of Persia Lego that they agreed to help mommy with the houseworks. And suddenly, we realized that they are able to make the bed, fold clothes, take the clothes from the dryer, wash the dishes, clean the table and floor after dinner and other mundane houseworks that mommy has been doing day in and day out. With great determination, I decide to keep some of them as the boys' permanent chores, as I would need to train them to help me when the baby arrives.

And you can't help feeling that they are really growing up when they start to have their own stand and principle and try to negotiate with their parents regarding anything and everything that they can think of. Today, X, who is going through a new spurt of physical growth recently, wants to negotiate with mommy and daddy to increase his pocket money by 2 folds! Knowing mommy's weakness, he is claiming that he gets hungry during recess and after school before mommy fetch him. So, he reasons that he would need the increment to buy food plus an extra to save. He even assures mommy that he is not trying to cheat mommy's money to increase his own savings!

Well, the discussion is being pushed to tonight, to include daddy and little brother, as we are a democratic family. Hmm, seems like I need to polish up my negotiation skills from now onwards....