Category Archives: Prequels

I got this email from a friend, from his friend. Must be the season for it

When I was 4 Years Old : My father is THE BEST

When I was 6 Years Old : My father seems to know everyone

When I was 10 Years Old : My father is excellent but he is short tempered

When I was 12 Years Old : My father was nice when I was little

When I was 14 Yrs Old : My father started being too sensitive

When I was 16 Years Old : My father can’t keep up with modern time

When I was 18 Years Old : My father is getting less tolerant as the days pass by

When I was 20 Years Old : It is too hard to forgive my father, how could my Mum stand him all these years

When I was 25 Years Old : My father seems to be objecting to everything I do

When I was 30 Years Old: It’s very difficult to be in agreement with my father, I wonder if my Grandfather was troubled by my father when he was a youth

When I was 40 Years Old: My father brought me up with a lot of discipline, I must do the same

When I was 45 Years Old: I am puzzled, how did my father manage to raise all of us

When I was 50 Years Old : It’s rather difficult to control my kids, how much did my father suffer for the sake of upbringing and protecting us

When I was 55 Years Old: My father was far looking and had wide plans for us, he was gentle and outstanding.

When I became 60 Years Old: My father is THE BEST

Note that it took 56 Years to complete the cycle and return to the starting point “My father is THE BEST”

Let’s be good to our parents before it’s too late and pray to GOD that our own children will treat us even better than the way we treated our parents .

If you are a regular reader, you’d have picked up that Caitlin is in my mum-in-law’s care during our working / office hours. This was the arrangement pretty much right from her birth.

Mum’s key to toilet training Caitlin was regularity. At almost-specific times of the day (maybe 4-5 times a day) she would bring Caitlin over to the toilet & coax her to pee. Special attention was paid when Caitlin has consumed more than usual amounts of liquid, but basically her toilet-training was to catch it before it rains, figuratively.

While I generally practise positive reinforcements, we also did show some friendly-disapproval (if you can call it that) to Caitlin if she did wet her diapers. OOooooh look- it’s wet. But generally we practised the former: Cheering when Caitlin’s diapers were dry after waking from both her afternoon naps & overnight sleeps. We also bought a toddler’s toilet seat & made it a big deal to her about her very own special seat to encourage her to use it.

It was as simple as that. She started telling us when she needed to go. She still does now mainly because she is not tall enough yet to get on the toilet on her own, or wash up after she’s done.

The breakthrough, not surprisingly, was when we explicitly explained to her that we wished (keyword) that she’d stop wearing them when she slept at night, & made it an adventure for her. I guess it also helped that, in our day-to-day interaction with her to develop her self-confidence in life, that we really do cheer her on when she accomplishes something, whatever the size of the accomplishment. The cheering does spur her on to want to do it.

Of course there were still accidents the first few nights, but I gotta say I don’t recall it being more than 3 times. I think it was because it was suddenly cold (airy??) without diapers!

This skill is something I will forever be indebted to mother in law- thanks Mum!

2am, almost every night: Daddee….. DADDEE…. I need to go shee shee!

While I am one of those who really treasures sleep (‘cos I get headachey and/or isn’t fully functional from lack of sleep), it’s nothing compared to this; especially that adorable sleepy face & the occasional out-of-the-blue questions, like last night’s “Why did the neighbour-boy come asking for sweets all dressed scarily?”

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!

Having older siblings help. They sometimes share their “if only” stories.

“If only I have taken more photos of my kids..”

Fathers, invest in a good (digital) camera, in a good video camera, & time.

I, for one, am already missing some of the phases & moments of my (only a very young) going-on-3 years old little girl… for they are already gone forever.

It is still clear in my head, the visual “playback” of my schoolmate’s reaction to my statement, & my reaction to his reaction; from so many years ago during a class break.

We were talking about what we do at home after school, during free time, etc. Don’t forget this is all pre-internet days!

“I get on my Atari and startup Pele Soccer…”

“I dunno; watch TV I guess. Maybe badminton or soccer..”

And I said “I chat with my mom..”

“You chat with your mum??” His reaction: How weird are you??

My reaction to his reaction: How weird to think that is weird.
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