Well, for me, I think endorsements from fellow bloggers and readers are just as significant.

Fellow blogger, parent, and offline friend Moomykin has given Daddeeyah! an award!

Thanks, Moomykin, for this award! This comes just a little after Daddeeyah! blog reached its first anniversary!

They all are charmed with the blogs, where in the majority of its aims are to show the marvels and to do friendship;
there are persons who are not interested when we give them a prize and then they help to cut these bows; do we want that they are cut or that they propagate?
Then let’s try to give more attention to them! So with this prize we must deliver it to 8 bloggers that in turn must make the same thing and put this text.

1. Since I am a Husband and Dad also
2. Another Good Husband-related blog
3. Toddlerdaddy
4. Lynn Lim
5. Derek Semmler’s The Man Page
6. Parent Hacks! has lots of tips
7. This Cuddly Family
8. My brother’s Flickr site (I know this is cheating, but he does photo-blog somewhat with this)

These days, they are talking about who’s school has the hottest girls, that Shea actor guy from the Transformers and also the last Indiana Jones, plans for *university. Some are already driving too, saying “I love you” when hanging up their mobiles, paying bills.

It didn’t seem that long ago that I had wanted to see what they looked like in their first school uniforms.

It didn’t seem that long ago that I had wanted to change the channel to the X Files, resulting in my nephew running out of the room covering his ears and shouting “WAIT WAIT WAIT (till I leave the room please)!” cos he knows it’s (sometimes) a scary show. Now he speaks of his younger brother being possibly scared of The Dark Knight; possibly also being interested in the second installment of the X Files movie (though I doubt it simply cos he doesn’t know enough background of the series), and not even scared at all of the creepier Dementors from Harry Potter.

It also didn’t seem that long ago that another nephew was only starting to talk. Now doing his second year of uni, talking about investment mechanics and instruments.

It didn’t seem that long ago that I was still able to play tennis and run down a ball. I was also able to lose the weight that I was gaining simply by watching what I eat and working out more often.

These days, it’s achy joints- some due to carrying heavy loads of baby, others permanent due to wear and tear. It’s not being able to have the time to just-go to the gym at my heart’s fancy- family commitments of ferrying kids and sticking to a schedule of toddler sleep routine and baby milk feeds implies no time for self. That I am also going to be 40 in only a few years time also means that this body does not function the way it used to: Lose fat, recover quickly, damaged easily.

I also now have permanent arm rests; where some affectionately call them love handles. I do wonder why the term “handles” are used to refer to that area; only vaguely remember its application..

Oh my dear, as Caitlin would say; I am going to turn 40.

It wasn’t that long ago that I had started work for the first time. In a lot of ways I don’t think I had learned much in the way of worklife. I believe I think this way because I still think of myself as young. The downside of this has in some ways disadvantaged me in that I keep thinking to myself I have time to learn this stuff, but later; although I have slowly progressed upwards in my career and job responsibilities. Perhaps if I was more aware and alert of my age and its implications I may actually be higher up the food chain..? That, I wouldn’t know.

It wasn’t that long ago that I was just in *university. The cycle has come almost a full circle now.

I told my older brother (who’s got thicker hair than I, in both sense of the description) that my hairdresser commented that I am not balding despite my joking with her; that I just have fine soft hair. My brother then reminded me that our dad isn’t bald, just that he also has fine hair.

I have been able to see my father’s scalp for decades.

Caitlin has a toddler tricycle & a walker-thingy that works like a scooter- a 4-wheeler that you’d sit & propel with your feet. She likes to ride the tricycle & have me follow her with the walker-thingy, pretending to visit the supermarket & needing petrol along the way. I’d have to bend over & push the walker-thingy with my hands on the handle.

I’d get quite puffed by the time we visit the petrol station the second time only. Mind you this is all only in the living room.

For a few months now, I have only been alternating my 2 newest pairs of work pants which are 2 inches bigger than my other pants in my wardrobe. These 2 new pairs fit quite well. Firm, not tight; but which also means “tight” is the next description on the scale of fitting.

When I was single I was quite a health & fitness fanatic. Not the most buffed guy in the gym (when I did visit the gym) but enough to blend in at the trendiest club in a tight-t, getting glances from the top percentage of good looking women & men alike (don’t ask what clubs I frequented, I just like the music they play).

But these days?

Dad Balance advocates striking the balance between fatherhood & work (career). While I am an avid reader of Derek’s postings in trying to apply his ideas for these aspects too, I am still struggling to find the 3rd dimension to the balance- time for self; which in my case the need for regular exercise.

Caitlin doesn’t know the word “fat” yet, but it won’t be long before she starts using that to tease & describe her Daddee. At this instance of time if she did say that to me, I don’t know how to respond: Pout? “That’s not nice..”? “COME HERE YOU!”

Thinning hair, development of a pot belly, a single chin. I am becoming a father racing toward middle age in all sense of the visual stereotype. I also notice the distance between my belly button & my chest is decreasing, pushed forward & up by the ever bloating belly button-pubis region.

It used to be that I’d think I could approach any member of the opposite sex & strike up a conversation without *much* risk of humiliation (whether I did that is another question)…

I think I am losing “it”.

My hairdresser’s response cannot be misconstrued as a pick up line now, can it? No… Can it?