Papa, please get me the moon?

Dearest Phoebe, Daddy is writing this entry after a four-day break from work. Last Thursday and Friday, we spent a good part of the mornings messing about at the playground. I remember you negotiated the playground steps by yourself and Daddy just went "Wow!". You took rides on the dinosaurs and chased the bubbles Daddy blew. We really had heaps of fun!
However, this Monday morning, Daddy lost his temper and shouted at you. Daddy's temper can be like a stick of dynamite; quick-burning fuse and explosive. This entry will be succinct and concise as extra words will most probably come off as some lame excuse for my outburst.
Phoebe, it's hard to be a parent, it's really hard at times. With that said, I know that Mummy and Ah Ma, have it harder as they are your primary care givers. It's probably hard for you too as you become more aware of your surroundings and the people around you. You are just an innocent child trying to make sense of this adult world and you have your way of expressing your emotions and thoughts.
For what it's worth, I am sorry and as a reminder to me, I would end off by saying, "Anger is not something you can get rid of by losing it."
Be good and smile pretty, Daddy Dearest.

Be innocent as doves......

Dearest Phoebe, as I am writing this entry, you and Mummy are already in dreamland. Your sleeping form plus your calm rhythmic breathing is so soothing in the quiet of the wee hours of the morning.
I am writing about an unfortunate event that happened hours earlier as we brought you out on one of our regular Friday night outings. Mummy said that while we were on the bus, there was this couple that kept staring at you with apparently less than friendly intentions. Based on what Mummy said, I believed that couple must have misconstrued your innocent comments about their son as insulting and rude. Mummy also added that they look really, really fierce and angry!!!
What went on in their minds to come to this unfortunate conclusion is beyond my comprehension. At times, people bear bad thoughts or ill intentions that I believe sprout from the darkness of their minds which are not shone upon by the light of morality, kindness and compassion.
With that said, I would like to bring to your attention a quotation I vividly remember after watching this movie titled "Gone Baby Gone" last year (2007). In the opening of this poignant film, the protagonist was lamenting to this preacher on how to go to heaven and still protect oneself from the evils of society. To his conundrum, the preacher replied "You are sheep among wolves, so be wise as serpents, yet innocent as doves".
Phoebe, please keep in mind that Mummy and Daddy will always be your shepherds because in our eyes, you are always our precious sheep. Be good and smile pretty, Daddy dearest.

Preparing for Pre-School

In three months time, Mummy and Daddy would be sending you to a half-day childcare. So in the next few months, to ease you into a new environment, mummy has planned the following for you:

1. Immunity boost
Mummy and daddy have gotten you back on your daily dosage of pure fish oil which we bought from Dr Zainal. It comes with Vitamin C and hopefully, you get better immunity since you do not take much fruits (chupa-chupp in orange flavour not counted!).

2. Familiarise
Mummy brought you to the school - Character Montessori and you seem to like the place. We intend to bring you there once in a while to familiarise with the place as well as the teachers. We also brought you to other childcare centres to take a peep at how other little children settle themselves there.

3. Anticipate
This morning when you woke up, mummy showed you some of the school- going children downstairs. You listened attentively as mummy describe to you what school life entails, i.e singing, playing, dancing ...(errh..how true is that?). Sometimes mummy would tell you these children look really really excited and happy going to school. Well, that was really a big fat lie!

4. Taking a Break
Since you will be going to school, mummy and daddy decided not to send you to any enrichment classes with the exception of gym classes to get your motor skills on track. In the next few months, we are just going to chill out, watch some performances, visit some galleries and parks.

Frankly, it is really a tough decision when we decide to send you to a childcare. As much as mummy worries if you get the quality care as compared to home, we do not have a choice. We hope to lessen the burden that Ah Ma has been going through for almost two years and taking care of you should not be a chore. Moreover, we want you to have better breath of air.

So be brave little girl. Mummy will come back at 7 o'clock, as promise always.

Muchas Gracias!

This picture was taken on your last lesson at Shichida. You looked really chirpy and happy in this picture. Maybe you were elated there was no more classes for you? Anyway, behind that gleeful face was a rather mischievous side of you on your last lesson. You performed some acrobats and went under the table and did not pay much attention. But you were rather funny too because when teacher Wan Ting asked "What day is it today?" You answered confidently:"Sunday!" It's Saturday, my dear. Anyway, Mummy had wanted to teach you to make something for teacher Wan Ting as a token of appreciation but unfortunately, we were too tired on Friday night after the visit to Bottle Tree Park. Mummy even thought of teaching you to make easter eggs for your friends to thank them for their company. Next time, maybe?

I Know....

Dearest Phoebe, Daddy has mastered procrastination to an art form. This is evident in the time intervals of my post to your digital herald. But this early Sunday morning, I have decided to put aside all things, including sleep, to write something as a tribute to your dearest Mummy.
Mummy plays a pivotal role in our family as she wears three to four hats at any one time. She is your loving Mum, Daddy's confidante, a filial daughter to your maternal grandparents, a respectiveful daughter-in-law to your paternal grandparents and last of all, a career woman most often working under harrowing job conditions!
All these roles put a tremendous moment of pressure on her and at times, such circumstances get her good and Daddy can tell she's trying sooooooo hard to keep moving forward.
Some nights when you are fast asleep, I would take the opportunity to chat with Mummy. One particular night, I remembered the pearls of tears that rolled down Mummy's cheeks as I said the words " I know...." I told her I know how hard she is trying to be the best Mummy to you, I told her I know that she's filial and pious, I also told her I know she's a respectful daughter-in-law as she never puts Daddy in a tight spot with your paternal grandparents, I told her I know she works in an organisation that operates in an environment of fear and spiteful office politics. I did not offer any immediate solutions to the myriad problems Mummy faced as I have none to offer.
So as I stroked your Mummy's hair that very night, with her cheeks still streaked with tears, she sought whatever short respite that the few hours of slumber could offer. I was not sure whether Mummy was truly asleep or she chose not to talk about the circumstantial issues on hand. Hence, I am writing this post as a continual tribute to the soldiering spirit of Mummy lest I forget about this incident. Most importantly, I am writing this so that one day, when you are done reading this entry, you will look at Mummy in her eyes and say the very words Daddy whispered to her ears..... " I know...."
Be good and smile pretty, Daddy Dearest.

What's in a name?

Nearly two years ago when mummy found out that she was expecting you, I have wanted a name for you that represents a shining little angel. So we chose the name 'Phoebe' which is of greek origin and it means bright and radiant.

And for a while, Mummy has been refraining from putting down your milestones in any form of medium for fear of being label as a 'show off' :-p

However, as this blog is for you, we hope when you are old enough to read this, you will realise that you have been a very special girl and over-achiever, in our eyes, for little tot of your age.

Milestones:
10.5 months - you recognise words like 'fish' and 'car' when mummy wrote them on the board
12 months - you have a vocabulary of almost 100 words and recognise them too.
14 months - you could recite1-10 including the chinese version :-)
16 months - you finally learn how to walk! Haha
17 months - you could recite A-Z and recognise all primary and secondary colours including brown?
18 months - you are reading simple sentences on your own
19 months - you start to speak in choppy sentences and recognise various shapes including trapezium and hexagon
20 months - you sang your first song what else but twinkle twinkle little star and learning how to count

Mummy hopes in the next fifteen years of formal education (at least!), you can look back on this and gain some form of motivation (maybe?). Although you could pick up concepts fairly quickly, what we really hope and deem critical and challenging would be for you to have the right attitude and a beautiful personality, and only with that can you shine brightly and create a spark not only to your life, but others too. But for now, mummy and daddy would just look at these little milestones and smile...

Artist @Work?

You love hand painting so much so that Daddy was asking if you may just think that painting is all about getting your hands dirty!!
Nevertheless, it is mummy's desire to expose you to art or even music. Not necessary to become an artist but I hope that if ever one day when loneliness engulf you, you can seek solace in art or music. Or the day when mummy and daddy are no longer around, music and art are means for you to express yourself.

Guess How Much I Love You

For the last two Sundays, we went to watch two performances by Children First; one of which is by Mermaid Theatre, a puppet theatry in which they adapted from the novels 'Guess How Much I love You' and 'My Little Story Book' . Another performance is Ball Pond Bobby.
I will start with the Ball Pond Bobby. Although Daddy doesn't like it, i feel that it is good in terms of stimulating your imagination and creativity. Imagine a yellow ball as the 'Sun' and umbrella as the 'rocket'? Till now, you could remember that the performers sang the song 'Polly put the kettle on' and Bobby was wearing Thomas and Friends socks! That was sharp.
As for the puppet shows, mummy and daddy were happy that you were really attentive although you were probably the youngest in the theatre. Here's something which mummy extracted from 'Guess How Much I love You' -

"Little Nutbrown Hare loves his daddy, big Nutbrown Hare very very much. In fact he says he loves him as far as his little arms can reach and as high as he can hop. But Big Nutbrown Hare is much much bigger and he says he loves Little Nutbrown Hare as far as his long arms can reach and as high as his strong legs can leap."

Before we had you, mummy and daddy would watch Cirque De Soleil whenever they were in town. I still remember at their last performance 'Quidam', Daddy asked mummy what would be a good age to bring little ones to watch such performances. If Cirque comes to Singapore again, hopefully soon, you will definitely be on my laps and enjoying a small of Ben and Jerry's just like what Mummy and Daddy did.

Dearest darling, this is Daddy's second post to your blog. At the behest of Mummy, I will change the font of my entries so that it is easier to distinguish our postings. Plus, I will include a picture that will be on the right hand side of my entries.
OK, Daddy's inspired to write something due to an incident that happened at Ah Ma's home. Your cousins, Gary and Cindy were involved in a verbal sparring with your Aunt, Er-Yi and I happened to pick up some of their exchange. Some unkind words were exchanged and it culminated with Gary saying that he would send Er-Yi to a nursing home when she is old. Those words really sent a chill down Daddy's spine. I'm not being judgemental here in trying to say your cousin Gary is in the wrong.
I have a different point to make here.... in life, people get into arguments and I'm sure we would. This is a fact of life but I hope amid our exchange (in the future), you would keep in my mind that Mummy and Daddy would want the best for you. You might disagree with our decisions and opinions but I guess that if you feel that way, Mummy or Daddy should be doing something right. Right in the sense that you have grown to have an opinion of your own, that makes you a special individual. Secondly, sometimes we do know best coz we have been down that road before and our forewarnings may run counter to your thoughts. In short, people sometimes disagree to agree at some other point.
I hope U understand what Daddy is trying to say. In the future, when you choose to be a parent, I hope you will find comfort in these words Daddy have written and hopefully... make you a better parent. OK, I'm looking too far into the future but at the very least, you would understand that parenting at times mean making some difficult decisions.
I'm listening to this song by Jack Johnson (an American surfer dude turned folk singer) and in his song "Angel", he sings about an angel "she doesn't wear anywings.... she wears a smile that make me wanna sing."
Be good and smile pretty... Daddy dearest.

First Post by Daddy

Hi, darling. This is the first post by Daddy dearest. Daddy's an avid user of the Internet and computers; however, I describe myself as a passive user of the Internet. Mostly leeching information and stuff from it but hardly contributing back. Hence, the passivity of my Internet usage sometimes worries me somewhat. In the future, when you grow up, one of my wish for you is that you become an active player of whichever organisation or environment you are a large part of. Give something back, not expecting anyback in return. Your Mummy dearest loves you heaps, she gives you so much love and care but she doesn't expect anything back. That my dear, is called unconditional love. The reason for that, just because..... just because you are our darling dearest!
So with that said, back to one of Daddy's greatest wishes for you, is that you become an active and responsible participant of your community, giving something back based on your strengths. In the process, you learn new things about yourself and hopefully, become a wiser and more aware individual. The grind and drudge of life may get you good on some days but being aware of your own self-worth and how precious you are to the people who love you unconditionally will help you bounce back real quick!
Be good and smile pretty... Daddy dearest.

My favourite person

This is one person whom you most love to play with. She's your cousin, Cindy. Perhaps the bonding between you and her began as early as when you were in mummy's womb. At that time, Cindy used to come over for 'student care' service at our house. I recalled how you would kick mummy really hard whenever mummy reprimanded her over her school work. We could tell that Cindy takes really good care of you too. However, do not take that for granted and mummy hopes when you grow up, you will learn to be more respectful and more appreciative of those around you who love and care for you.

Do you love me too?

Last night, when you saw a bruise on my knee, you said "Mummy painful, mummy take medicine." Lately, I am beginning to feel that you are showing signs of affection and you love mummy as much as I love you. Just like when you see pictures of children with their mummies, you will come over and hug me. When you hear your favourite song, you will turn and smile at me. Or when you hear about the story of the boy who sometimes fly kite with his mummy, you will roll yourself onto me. I can go on and one to list the instances but the point to make is moments like this never fail to melt mummy's heart.