This End of the Telescope

Dearest Phoebe,
it has been almost two weeks since Daddy made a blog entry. Suffice to say, Daddy's been suffering from a writer's block of sorts. Anyway, the past weekend was not too eventful coz you came down with a bad throat infection and an accompanying intermittent high fever. On Saturday, we managed to pay Baby Jonas a visit. Uncle Chee Leong and Auntie Sereen even treated us to a sumptuous KFC lunch. Baby Jonas was sleeping while you gently stroked his head. You even crept into his bedroom to bid him farewell while he was sleeping in his cot. Actually, I was afraid that you might create a ruckus and wake him up!

Come Sunday, when we discovered you were a running a high fever, we brought you down to TMC to see Dr Ang. Following a blood test and his examination, you were diagnosed with a throat infection. After the consultation, we went home immediately and it was a long day of battling to keep your fever down. You seemed to have developed an unhealthy phobia of taking your medication and even if you did, there would a long and protracted negotiation with many concessions in your favour thrown in. You would only take your meds if we agreed to bring out for a walk or if you could eat some snacks immediately after your medication.

It is tiring but it was the only avenue, short of force feeding. It was something we decided against lest it would aggravate your fever. You had to skip school for the past few days just to make sure that you have fully recovered. Boredom got the better of you on Monday and I decided to take half a day's leave to take you off Ah Ma's hands for the afternoon. We discovered a new playground behind Ah Ma's block and we alternated between chilling in the nearby shelter and the rides at the playground. It was a cool Monday afternoon and blessed are we to be able to enjoy the facilities!

It's the simple things that count in life. Anyway, as you would have guess by now, Daddy is a pop-culture junkie. I read, view and feel the world around us through periodicals, articles, books, movies and music.

In the song, "This end of the Telescope", Jakob Dylan sings of "I see clear at last, I love, I loathe. On this end of the telescope" You are at an age where you are discovering new things. Remember your attempt to string a sentence in Mandarin? I believe that you must have picked up a lot from your Chinese teacher in childcare. You are also scooting around on your kiddy ride at home with surprising dexterity, you hardly paid attention to your ride before. You are on a journey of discovery through play and lessons at childcare. It is just like peering into a telescope to discover new and amazing things that it throws up.

Sadly, we adults tend to view the world through the wrong end of the telescope. Our views become closeted as things we view become so much smaller than they seem. With narrow views, come narrow minds and hearts. Hence, my wish for you as you progress on your journey of learning and discovery is to remain on this end of the Telescope, the side that brings you a lot closer to things to learn and feel.

Be good and smile pretty,
Daddy Dearest.

Quick Round-Up

Dearest Phoebe,

We have somewhat neglected your blog and this is especially so after mummy started on her new job. Higher expectations, faster paced, more competitive and more relevance in the sense that the subject matter is something which Daddy and I could engage in discussion with; I am sure you heard some this sharing on our evening walk back from Ah ma's house.

Quite a fair bit of changes for you and the household over the last one month. Most of which are good news to share with. First and foremost, you are somewhat happily settled in your school. Although it's rather tedious waking you up, getting you changed and taking two buses before we reach your school, Daddy and I enjoy it thoroughly, not forgetting the 100-metre dash we need to make sometimes to catch the bus. As it's the morning peak hours, some kind souls would sometimes give up their seats for us. Mummy would always whispers in your ears to thank the person for doing so, and how not to take that for granted. Remember, its a privilege not a right if someone give up seats to us. When we drop you off in school, you never forget to give Daddy and mummy a hug and kiss. Sometimes, even when the school door is closed, you would run to the glass door and 'stick' yourself to the door with your arms open wide to give mummy a hug. Silly girl!

At the 'homefront', your relationship with Daddy has grown much closer and stronger. Parenting doesn't come naturally for some and for Daddy, everyday he is trying to do his best. Mummy totally appreciates that and I am certain that you can tell too. You fell sick over the weekend and Daddy took half-day leave yesterday to take care of you. You enjoyed Daddy's company and even today, Ah Ma said you were crying and fussing as you wanted Daddy to be around. Something which is almost unthinkable months ago.

Even as you begin half-day care at the school, your relationship with Ah Ma has never been better. Although we often chastised you for being rude to Ah Ma and Ah Gong, we do feel that you are very attached to them. Sometimes you would wake up middle of the night crying for them or ask for them. When you are older, it will be your turn to care for them as Ah Ma has made too much sacrifices for you too.

Last but not the least, concerning your personal development, your Mandarin has improved tremendously!! And not just that, you love the language now and would do your Mandarin translation whenever you can. Just the other day, you completed a sentence in Mandarin on your own.

That's about all. Will write more.

Ode to my Nation

Dearest Phoebe,
Mummy filmed a short video of you singing "国旗, 国旗, 我爱你!" You have picked a fair bit of Mandarin from your Chinese teacher at your childcare centre. You have certainly expanded your repertoire to include this song in your mother tongue!

Be good and smile pretty, Daddy Dearest!

Keep it Real

Dearest Phoebe, I am aghast at the number of gramatical errors in Daddy's previous blog entry. I hope U can pick out some of them and let me know. I shall refrain from correcting these errors in order to maintain the spontaneity of blogging. I usually write on the spur of the moment and upload them whenever I have Internet connectivity. In life, nothing is perfect and nothing is constant. In life, the only constant is change.
Be good and smile pretty, Daddy Dearest.

PS: Hhhmmm... that reads like a haiku or something... 8-)

A little less conversation, a little more singing please!

Dearest Phoebe, Mummy has requested that I archived some of your singing videos for posterity's sake. You have a limited repertoire and your singing is off tune most of the time. I guess you must have overcame your initial shyness of singing to Mummy and Daddy.
Hence, I think we need to give you credit for that. For what's it is worth, please sit back and enjoy your singing.

Be good and smile pretty, Daddy Dearest.

Bollywood Hollywood Reloaded

Dearest Phoebe, this is part deux of our day after your school excursion. There was a light drizzle after lunch and you got up just as the wait staff were clearing up the dishes. We boarded the bus and you had your milk on the journey back. I was trying to stay awake while you were just sitting by yourself.

We got off at school and we headed back off after a quick change of your diapers. Teacher Lee was kind enough to help you change.

After we got home, you were still in your school uniform while Daddy tried my best to clean up the mud your sandals picked up at the farm. Alas, I did not get much opportunties to take photos of the trip. Now I know how hard it is for Mummy to bring you out without Daddy's company. After we cleaned up, we did some reading and colouring. I remembered Mummy calling to check on us and I replied "Uh, we are just messing around!".

Mummy arranged to meet with us at Central for dinner so we had to get ready by and leave home by five. The activities were we did are all a blur to Daddy now but there was a moment when I had to catch some shuteye. We were sitted on our sofa and I said that I needed forty winks. With that said, I fell into a deep slumber with you sitted by my side. What felt like an eternity much needed rest, I was awoken with you peering into my eyes with your saucer like eyes and you whispered "Daddy, wake up!". It was one of the best wake-up calls I have had in a L O N G time! We messed around a bit more before you had to take a dump. You would have a little routine of your own before you did your business, so after a while Mummy and Daddy could tell when we should give you some privacy to do your business.

After a quick washup, you finally changed out of your school uniform into something more comfortable. Daddy wasn't too familiar with your wardrobe so I let you had your pick. Once, we were out the door and you fell into a deep sleep as the LRT pulled into the train station. We alighted at Clarke Quay but you were stil fast asleep on Daddy's shoulders.

We walked around Central shopping centre while waiting for Mummy to knock from work. You were awoken from your slumber by the soothing sounds of a string ensemble of two violins and a cello as there happened to be a preview performance of classical recital of the string ensemble. Daddy is no authority on classical music but there was a piece by Vivaldi titled "Four Seasons". With that, Mummy arrived and we adjourned for dinner at a Japanese restaurant.The choice of venue for dinner was made solely on whether they had steamed egg on their menu as that is what you have requested for dinner. The steamed egg at this restaurant cost a bomb.You polished off a bowl by yourself and wanted more!

Well, we really felt it was too expensive and had to cooked up some excuse. We scooted off quickly after settling the bill. We headed back home via NEL. As we stepped into our home, Mummy remarked, "Well, you two were really messing around!" as she took in the full sight of the aftermath of our playtime!

Be good and smile pretty, Daddy Dearest.

Feeling a little lost ..

Dearest Phoebe,
Mummy decided to pen this down in your blog whilst the incident is still fresh in my mind. You were rather cranky last evening (yes, again), probably because you were dragged out from your late slumber. In your crankiness, you started using your legs to kick mummy and even used your fist to hit mummy's back. This was the first time and I hope the last that you would do this. You are rarely rude to mummy, so your actions yesterday kind of threw us off our feet. You know how mummy felt? Mummy was not angry but lost, very lost. These are acts of innocence but in ten or fifteen years down the road, if you were to do that again, it would be a testament of how our way parenting has failed. As Daddy mentioned in the earlier entries, parenting is really a tough job. I recalled one night while you were sleeping and Daddy and I chatted about the 'right' way in bringing you up. Lots of love is the methodology that we would prescribe to. However, an overt expression of love would probably lead to undesirable consequences. So again, the question of how to manage you, the little one, without bruising you emotionally. Daddy had to punish you but ended off with lots of hugs for you. The evening ended well, nonetheless, as you crawled your tired self to mummy's lap again with lots of cuddles. Lots of love, from mummy.