What a weekend

Phew! I think I am more flat out during the weekends than weekdays. Ashley is one famous baby. We ferry her to in-laws’, my parents’ place and occasionally, to my grandmother’s place. She’s a mini celebrity in her own right.

At my parents’ yesterday is a ritual ever since I got married. Plus, to feast on my mom’s cooking. She’s a real good cook (fact 1) but she didn’t used to be until she got married. In fact, during her early years of marriage, it was my dad who taught her a thing or 2 about cooking. I guess now the “student” has become the “master”.

My mom, she loves to cook. Not only for the family but also for her friends. Yesterday, while we were having our lunch, she was still busy at the back of the kitchen. When I asked her why she didn’t want to join us for lunch, she said “Oh, I am still not hungry. I want to finish this tom yam mee hoon for Chris (her friend) cos she wants to eat”. She can never say “no”. She’s just too nice (fact 2).

We had some chit-chat as usual. Gossip and nagging more like it. My mom is a health freak (fact 3). She has all kinds of vitamins in her cupboard. She is the one to tell me what to eat, what is good. She even got me to buy this food sterilizer thingy for sterilizing meat and vegetables before cooking cos she said “Soon, Ashley will need some solids, so you better get this to sterilize her food before cooking”.

I did get a breather though. Took a short nap. It was nice to have my sisters playing with Ashley for a change. I was already drained out in the afternoon, probably due to the hearty lunch. My mom? Well, after she finished cooking for her friend, she went out with my dad to fetch my grandmother. She is a real energizer bunny (fact 4) I tell ya. She is usually up at the break of dawn and will not stop until the sun is down, way down.

My mom once quipped “I am still young. See I can do so many things. Unlike all you youngsters, do a little bit, complain tired already”. It’s quite true actually. Even though my mom is 60, she doesn’t look a day older (fact 5).

Then, my grandma arrived. So naturally Ashley was all excited cos she loves spending time with her great grand mother. My mom asked my grandma “Lai, ai chiak boh?” (Mother, want to eat?). She is the only one who speaks in Hokkien with my grandmother (fact 6). Back in those days when my parents first got married, my mom can’t speak a word of Cantonese and my grandmother can’t speak a word of Hainanese (my mom is Hainanese). The only common dialect between them was Hokkien and as they say, old habits die hard, they both speak to each other in Hokkien till this very day. My mom has since learnt Cantonese but still a little “broken”.

However, don’t be mistaken, my mom can be one feisty woman (fact 7). She doesn’t like people who smoke. “Bad for health” she would say. So, she told us that when my dad proposed, she gave him a conditional “yes”. On the condition that he stops smoking. You can never get my dad to do anything but that he did, stopped smoking for my mom.

Speaking of my mom when she got married, my mom used to be very fashionable in her younger days (fact 8). She would wear the hippi-est clothes and mini-est skirts. In fact, my aunties used to seek her fashion advice and even used to borrow her clothes.

My mom is the epitome of what a mom is and should be. Well, to me at least. I would be very happy if I can be half as good as her. She works hard for the family, is a devoted mother, wife, daughter and daughter-in law.

There! I thought I’d never finished. I struggled. I struggled because there’s just too many things to say, too many to write. To sum my mom up to just 8 facts after all these years, being there for me during my childhood, growing up, adult years and now, as a mother myself, I found it difficult. Thanks to this Mommy for the tag, it was a pleasure reading yours.