My Happy Little Chef

I got to spend some quality time alone with JJ this morning while The Husband brought JZ out for Football ECA at school. I wanted to make myself some scrambled eggs on toast and asked if he would like to join me and help me make it. Of course, my little kaypochee jumped at the opportunity to get his hands dirty in the kitchen. No hesitation whatsoever.

Le Grains sun-dried tomato bread in the toaster,

kampung eggs broken into bowls and lightly seasoned,

and there's JJ on the counter, all ready to beat some eggs.

I showed JJ how to make scrambled eggs by making mine first. Dumped the eggs into the pan and started stirring till they were done. He watched, paid close attention and listened to my instructions. After that, I left him to make his own. 

And... here we go!

STIR! STIR! STIR! DON'T STOP STIRRING!!! 😂

And... tadaaaaa!!

The beaming chef with his first plate of scrambled eggs on toast.

Look at that smile. He was so, so happy with what he had achieved! And I was so, so proud of him! He did an excellent job. 👏👍💪 Ok la. My work here is done. From now on, JJ will be our family's breakfast chef. 😆 #cucitangan #passingonthebaton

Yum yum. Chef approved!

All in all, I think my little boy had fun spending time with his mommy. And I'm really glad we got to do this together cos I've really missed spending alone time with him, too. 😘 

You see, back when we were still in KL, JJ finished school at 12pm daily, while JZ finished school at 2pm on days without ECA. That meant that I had at least 2 hours of alone time with JJ every. single. day. from the time he started preschool at CH at 2y4m until 5 July 2019 when we officially left AS.

That's 2 hours alone with mommy – without Kor For or Papa around to compete for attention – 5 days a week, for 2 years and 11 months of his 5 years of being alive. Quite a significant amount of time for a child, if you ask me. (And this doesn't even include JZ's ECA extra time in school and the 1.5-hour alone time that we get when JZ is at The Little Secret and he's not!)

In those 2 precious hours during mid-day, we'd eat, catch up, talk, cook noodles, make jelly, play games, watch videos, sing songs, go shopping, and do other random nonsense together. We even went to RedBox for karaoke buffet together before. 🎤 Just the two of us. Twice, I think! LOL!

So yes, coming back to Penang, going to a new school, living in a new home, and dealing with cancer has brought many changes for JJ and I. But one of the biggest changes is the reduction of alone time that we get to spend together. I must remember to create more pockets of precious moments like these for him and JZ, too. I want to continue to be one of the reasons they smile like this: