Given my enjoyment in putting this up with Caitlin, & despite it taking as long & as much of my lung capacity as it did, I think I will also enjoy trying out this craft for her.
I have left a message on the author’s blog whether I could plagiarise her design (that is in fact what I’d be doing) & make one at home for Caitlin. Eagerly waiting her response…
The challenge now is finding the big pieces of corrugated cardboards. Promise I will be the one handling the box cutter…
Posted in A father's POV, Ergonomics
So we went for the follow-up check up this week. Happy to report baby & Mummee doing well. I think Mummee said something about putting on 11kg’s since becoming pregnant; she is due mid-Jan, so that’s…. 6+ months now.
On the way home in the car ride tonight, Caitlin again expressed her wish to sayang & stroke Mummee’s tummy. We have been prepping her for the impending arrival of her younger sibling, & have been telling her that it will be another few more months before Babee arrives.
She’s quite excited to be jie jie the older sister. She’s actually been telling the grown-ups to not call her by her name but to call her jie jie… Heh heh.
Caitlin: I wanna sayang Babee…
Daddee: Not yet sweetie, Babee is still in Mummee’s stomach
Caitlin: Why?
Daddee: Babee still needs to grow a bit bigger in Mummee’s stomach before it is ready to come out
Caitlin: Yeah, then it will broke
Daddee: “Broke”? What will be broken?
Caitlin: The egg, then Babee can come out
Daddee: Note to self- Gotta further explain to the youngling that there are major differences between the bird family & homo sapiens. That kid’s book- I know which one, the one with the chicken or egg drawings, gotta remove it from her collection… at least for now
We still haven’t decided on a name yet- still waiting for my mum on coming up with the Chinese name suggestions. To be fair she already had a few, all of which we didn’t unanimously like the sounds of them. My mum was the one who came up with Caitlin’s Chinese name; in fact with most of her kids’ too decades ago, if not all of ours.
For Caitlin’s Chinese name, the first calligraphy character means Wisdom; the second means Clear, as in clear [blue] skies. Mum says these are actually quite gender neutral characters, but which (also to me) tend to sound more feminine. I won’t do it justice typing it here- it has to be heard.
So, the “search” for Babee’s name is still on… Well, not quite a search, we are still leaning on Mum to come up with one. She’s good in Mandarin, also tends to avoid typical & widely used Chinese names & have come up with pretty unique names for Caitlin & (I believe) 11 out of my 13 nieces & nephews.
Posted in A father's POV, A toddler's POV
Okay, this is the first review of a product that I am not using / do not own, nor am I getting paid for this!
I came across this, & just knew I had to share my “discovery”!
Before Mummee (& other men) start labelling me as being such a softy:
I don’t think I need to explain how these shoes work; only that I wonder if they come in various combo of sizes!
I can think of a few occasions where this will come in handy… can’t you?
More info here
Posted in A father's POV, A toddler's POV, Ergonomics
I have received email-chains from friends on recounts on people who have been carjacked, how it happened, & where. Admittedly I have only skimmed these emails, picking out keywords on the locations & the MO used.
I am writing this post with interest now because over the weekend, a colleague fell victim to such a crime. For me it was close enough to home.
Coming out of a highway & just after paying the toll, my colleague & her husband’s car was hit by a car from behind. Pulling over & alighting to check the damage, the culprits from the car behind snatched the keys from the husband’s hand & very quickly got into the driver’s seat. Immediately aware of what was going on, husband ran to the front passenger side where my colleague was still seated with the belt on. Husband managed to get colleague out of the car before the culprits drove away, but not before superficially injuring colleagues arm in tugging / pulling her out of the car with the seatbelt in the way.
Recalling the incident, colleague said that their car has an engine immobiliser installed, so their car did not actually get very far (though I am unsure what “far” means). She also recounted that the initial gang of 2 suddenly became 4- she couldn’t recall where & when the extra 2 appeared from. I guess it was also when they made the police report that they found out that there were 2 other such cases that day.
The first time I heard the term “carjacking” would easily have been 20 years ago during my uni days; where these cases seemed more prevalent in the US, at least then.
I am not bashing the country. I am, however, interested in how the US public has “evolved” to address such a crime since it started there so many years ago: What measures to take, any new technologies available, tell-tale signs to look out for, & what “simple” precautions the public should take. Carjacking in Malaysia at least to me, seems like quite a new crime, so most of the public are still not aware of it & many fall prey to it.
I can’t help picturing the what-if’s- if it had happened to me, with Caitlin still in the backseat. Shudder shudder
Readers whose countries have already taken measures to address this crime, what are the precautions the public are encouraged to adopt, technically & non-technically?
Posted in A father's POV
You know, Caitlin, that the day you were due to be born, Mummee & Daddee still attended Aunty Ivy’s wedding dinner? Everyone was amazed that Mummee & Daddee actually turned up at the banquet hall despite telling everyone that we may have to give it a miss! Do you remember hearing all the happy cheers at the dinner?
Dr Wong, who is looking after Mummee now with your soon-to-be-born little brother, was also your Dr then. He had told Mummee & Daddee that we should go see him soon after that- Dr was afraid that you would continue growing & become too big come out naturally.
Mummee & Daddee brought our bags to the Dr’s work a few days later, where we were lucky to have a room all to ourselves. Daddee brought his laptop along for music, but you were cheeky & everybody wasn’t prepared for how long we had to wait for you!
Dr Wong inserted half a pill of something to induce Mummee. About 6 hours later Dr came back & there was little change; Mummee didn’t feel any different, just bored.
Dr Wong then inserted another half a pill of something. Mummee was still only bored hours later. Do you remember?
Dr Wong then decided to rupture the amniotic sac, hoping that this time there would be some action. Mummee was still only getting more bored. Cheeky you!
Dr Wong then decided to put Mummee on a drip. Do you remember that only then did something happen in Mummee’s stomach?
Dr Wong came to check & told Mummee & Daddee that Mummee was slow to respond, that you would only be coming out in 7 hours?? Cheeky you, Mummee then was in so much pain that Mummee decided to have that injection in her back to make it less ouch-ouch!
Dr Wong is so clever- you really only were ready to come out about 7 hours later like he said! And Daddee hadn’t showered for over 36 hours! Eeew, Daddee was so smelly!
You probably don’t know the Transformers cartoon, but when you were ready to come out, Mummee’s bed somehow had so many things added & so many things folding so quickly to welcome you, that it didn’t look like the same bed anymore!
Mummee told me afterwards that it was really helpful that Daddee was watching over Dr Wong’s shoulder when you were coming out giving encouragement with Daddee’s thumbs-up, because Mummee couldn’t feel what she was doing or doing it correctly… It’s okay, Mummee can feel now, sweety.
But you know what, sweety? When your head came out, Daddee actually thought you looked so much like Daddee! How do I know? Maybe someday Daddee will show you Daddee’s baby photos with your own, then we can both have a chuckle together! Hee hee!
And maybe one day too Daddee will show you the video of you coming out! It’s okay, Daddee’s clever camera didn’t show anything, only when the nurses brought you to Mummee the first time!
Maybe you can also see how red your skin was.. It’s okay, Dr Wong said that it was normal, & how it would also be normal that a few days later you would turn a bit yellow because the red was going away. But you didn’t turn yellow! You just turned into “normal” colour- so clever!
It’s okay, Daddee wasn’t scared. Daddee was only scared of your poop-poop; it was so smelly!
Posted in A father's POV, Prequels
Long weekend. Yayy! I had promised myself that I would do stuff with Caitlin: Go for swims, possibly to the kids gym again, & possibly the following activity- which I did.
Mommee’s cousin sister was more interested in watching / imagining Daddee’s blowjob (as she put it) than the real intention of giving Caitlin this toy present (I hope the search engines don’t pick that keyword up).
In all, the Castle Bouncer came in 5 main pieces. The base is one huge chamber, made of different material than the other parts presumably more resilient to withstand the weight of the jumpers. The material actually seems stretchy. The four towers are attached to the corners, each with its own “blow holes”. The four “gates” are separate pieces, with two holes on both sides to string them to the towers. Enough strings are provided, though I would have much preferred a more secure means for this rather important aspect of the toy, cos I only know granny knots.
I nearly gave Cousin the pleasure she quite openly sought. I was reaching desperation when I first realised the nozzle of my pump did not fit the “blow hole” of the base- it was after all meant for a bicycle; until I removed the head itself & the tubing fit exactly into the blow hole.
Still, we had spent a total of just over 70 minutes of pumping to fill up this baby. Caitlin & I both felt the exhaustion. Long weekend or not, I wasn’t going to spend another hour or so filling up the other parts. It was clear that compromising my integrity would definitely have given me the headstart I needed in this job.
Mommee came home from work & told me that Cousin mentioned there was a pump in the market meant for such use. Cousin really does have a certain wicked way about her.
But alas, morning came & I realised that the main chamber was the only one I could use the pump. The other parts, for some Chinese-made reason, were smaller. I had lost my integrity, my dignity, my self respect. My daughter is scarred for life.
And I couldn’t enjoy the fruits of my labour with Caitlin either, as the packaging clearly stated that the total combined weight should not exceed 85kg (and “only 3 toddlers allowed” or something to that weight-related effect). Sigh, it actually looked like fun watching Caitlin bouncing around inside.
So, since we had birthday dinner plans with friends, I had asked them to come over with their toddler after that so at least the kids can enjoy it together, which they did, and it was a blast!
The dilemma now is when to put away the toy, & the need for very careful decision of when next to take it out & where (at home again, Grannee’s place, etc). You can’t just decide to bring it along for short trips, considering how long it took to put it up; & I haven’t even collapsed it yet so I don’t know how long putting it away will take!
I can hear Cousin laughing from here.
Posted in Ergonomics
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Happy birthday, to me!
Thanks for the socks, you guys!
Posted in A father's POV
