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Originally posted 2010-10-27 22:13:14. How time flies. Blink (of) an eye, as the Chinese saying goes, and it has already been 3 years since Caitlin started pre-school. And as with tradition with her school, the annual concert is also the … Continue reading
Originally posted 2008-10-23 18:09:42.
As you know Caitlin enjoys being picked up from school by her favourite human on Earth (ahem).
So since I had the day off work (actually I had taken the whole week off since I have a load of annual leave left), and also that our department had organised a lunch party, I thought to pick Caitlin up from school and head on over to the office party with her in tow, to show her the place where I work.
The party was a combined Raya celebrations as well as farewell for a staff. But little did I know that there was also gonna be performances by my peers. Some singing, some dancing, some fashion show parade.
We arrived about 50 minutes after the party started- Caitlin’s school day only ended 30min after the scheduled start of the party. By then there were thank-you speeches already by my unit head, and soon followed by performances.
The ladies in the unit danced, sang self-written rhymes to tease the farewell staff. Staff were also requested to come “dressed up”, so there were also fashion / catwalk parades. In good sportsmanship, when my peers saw me walking in with Caitlin, I was also requested to parade under the “Daddy with daughter” category. Caitlin wasn’t too appreciative of that, but she obliged since I was holding her hand. We did a walk, I wanted to twirl her but she wasn’t really in the mood, and we walked back to where we were hiding.
Soon after, lunch was served. It was only then that she started coming out of her shell, starting to respond and then started talking to the adults in my office. It was afterwards that I found out that she even volunteered info- that she spoke first instead of just responding, about her day in school, with one of the ladies here…
Hmm I wonder if it was ‘cos food was being served that she opened up….
So now she has seen “Daddee’s office”. Complete with dancing ladies, singing ladies, ladies winning (small) awards for being best-dressed, a big table full of food with tomato rice, not-spicy curry dishes, cakes, “crackers” (she didn’t know they were called papadums), and Playhouse Disney (website) on Daddee’s work laptop.
Talk about misconceptions about the adult working life from an early age!
Originally posted 2009-03-29 14:47:56.
Friday morning we were getting ready for work and school respectively. Fridays are when Caitlin’s school has a wading session in their small pool. Since she’s always loved the pool it was always a welcomed day; that as well as an early-age adoption of the adult TGIF concept (she doesn’t seem to like school as much this year).
She’s still got some audible phlegm in her throat, though she isn’t coughing anymore, it’s still there. Apparently she had also promised Teacher Rachel a show-and-tell of her collection of fridge magnets from home. She told me of this on Thursday night when I was tucking her in.
That morning I made the mistake of reminding her that it’s swimming day. All psyched up, she had been carrying her plastic bag of swim gear all morning wherever she was whilst getting ready. HM reminded me of her still-present phlegm, that we should wait for another week before she is allowed back in the pool (the last time I forgot, her cough came back in full force after a swim with Daddee; and we know how easily she pukes when she gets into a coughing fit).
I told her “no, can’t go swimming; wait for another week”. She wouldn’t have it. Repeated Elmer Fudd vs Bugs Bunny of yes no yes no only aggravated the respective individual emotions of our positions. Of course being the Daddee I managed to almost wrestle the bag off her. Okay I did it as gently as I could.
We were already in the car, basement of our building. Every morning we’d be lugging not just our respective bags; there is also Caleb’s gear for the day, some washing to be done, and Caleb himself aided by our helper. Settled in, buckling our seatbelts, feeling pretty shitty about the whole ordeal already, and she says, between the teary jerks of breaths, “DADDEE WE FORGOT THE MAGNETS!!”
There were really 3 options to handle this: (1) Go upstairs alone. That would be the quickest. But that also means leaving them alone in the car in the basement- toddler, 14 month old, a foreigner; (2) All go up together. Safest option. But taking the longest, making us late for school and work. (3) Fuggedaboutit.
I declared option (3). Caitlin goes into a wailing fit. Feet kicking, top of voice crying protesting she wants to go back upstairs to get the magnets, why wasn’t I listening to her.
I respect that she wants to honour her promise to Teacher Rachel. She was even looking forward to this- I could tell. But either (1) or (2) would mean we’d both be late. I even twisted the argument back at her; not a very nice thing to practise on a toddler I admit; that she didn’t listen to me either that morning when we said no to swimming, that she didn’t listen to us.
I felt bad about her not able to indulge in a simple swimming activity. It didn’t rain that day and the swim session did go ahead. She would, like before, have to remain in class hearing all the cheers and splashes downstairs.
But I felt worse that I couldn’t let her carry out her simple request of going back upstairs to get the magnets. This wasn’t something bad at all. For the longest time I had been instilling in her to honour her word/promise, and this was one example- that she wanted to show the magnets as promised. I was consoling / coaching her to say to Teacher Rachel that she is sorry she forgot to bring the magnets, but that she would be late if she/we turned around to go get them, that she didn’t want to be late, and that she would bring them on Monday instead.
In some ways I was also just lazy.
But what would you have done?
Posted in A father's POV, A toddler's POV, Education, life skills, Parenting rules
Tagged discipline, Education, father, growing up, school, skills, trouble
Originally posted 2008-08-22 15:28:30.
It’s the school holidays this week. I had taken Wednesday and Thursday off with plans with Caitlin.
We were going to include the following activities, initially in no particular order:
We managed the third and first item on Wednesday day and night respectively. The fireworks event was an adventure in itself. Wyluxx had wanted to try his hand at photographing fireworks this time, so given Caitlin’s likely interest to watch too, we went along.
20 minutes of straight booms and bangs and flashes was quite worth the ride all the way to Putrajaya, and the 2 hour wait- we went early, to secure good parking and viewing spots, but mainly cos we weren’t sure exactly where the venue was going to be. Anticipating the crowd (very likely learned from past experience) the local police had set up clear directional signs for the traffic, and had areas properly cordoned off for orderly parking.
I think Caitlin enjoyed it.
But because of these activities on Wednesday, Caitlin didn’t manage to get any afternoon nap, and also that the fireworks only finished at 10:20pm, we got home quite late. So I had wanted her to sleep in as late as possible on Thursday morning.
I had planned on doing item 2 on Thursday. But wouldn’t you know it, it rained. And rained, and rained and rained. Caitlin must have been psyched about going to Genting too, cos she auto-woke early.
I had to let her down by saying we cannot go after all. So, Daddee’s Plan B was to bring her for a movie. Her first ever movie experience. The only suitable one available was WALL-E.
And how did it go, you ask?
We went to Midvalley. After checking online the showing times I aimed for the first session of 11:45am; with the 12:30pm one as back up. I mean, I knew it is the school holidays, but wouldn’t the teenagers be more interested in Star Wars than WALL-E?? Why did I have to get the 12:30 one?
So, we got the tickets, and hung around for just over an hour and a half. It was ok; we ate our prepacked lunch, checked out the nearby pet store to talk to some parrots, went to the toilet before showtime.
Also, I didn’t know it was a 2-hour movie. But that’s not the “bad news”. 20 minutes into it, Caitlin asks: “Is it finished yet?”
She also has a slight runny nose, and the cinema was quite cold even for me. We left the cinema for a while just to get her a nice jacket to wear (she doesn’t have a nice one anyway). I got her a Pooh Bear World of Cartoon denim jacket which I do think is quite nice. It’s dark denim with orange stitching, straight cut buttons all the way like a shirt pattern and shirt collared. I got her a size 6 knowing it will fit her for a few more years.
Went back in, and time for another leave-the-cinema for a toilet break. Soon after, she didn’t like it, and we left the movie completely.
So that was my first experience with her on her first movie experience.
Few things I noted:
So for tomorrow, being the weekend before the kids go back to school, I may bring her to the Aquaria with Moomykin and her boys. Anyone else interested?
Originally posted 2009-04-01 09:53:55.
Only a few days after that last post on how Caleb is starting to sleep through the night, he started (again) to not be so.
Why does he wake? Just because.
Just because I made a little noise.
Just because Caitlin needs to go pee.
Just because I shifted in my bed.
Just because he shifted in his bed.
Just because.
And he wails. Lucky for me HM is the one who wakes to sooth him back to sleep, with some effort too mind you.
So in that time, I am woken, Caitlin is woken. (HM’s work hours are a little flexible in that she doesn’t have to be in the office very early).
And we both suffer from lack of sleep the next day. I can cope with this with drug laced beverages, but feedback from Teacher Rachel is that Caitlin either dozes off in class, or is moody and thus teary I-wanna-go-home.
Thus, we (mainly I) have to decide for both of us what to trade-off in order to bring forward bedtime.
Sigh…..
Posted in A father's POV, A toddler's POV, Caitlin the heiress, Caleb the heir, Ergonomics, Parenting musing
Tagged baby, gym, school, sleeping through the night, toddler
Originally posted 2008-09-22 14:09:12.
As was much celebrated by us working slaves, last Wednesday was a public holiday for some states including Selangor, which is where my office is.
So, I had the pleasure of picking Caitlin up from school that day.
I had told her the day before that I would be able to pick her up; “Daddee will pick you up from school tomorrow, okay?”
You’d never hear a louder “Yay!!” than that! “I can show you to my friends!” was her first statement.
Hmm…
Anyway, she didn’t, but her expression when she saw me was quite funny-interesting.
It was a mix of apprehension and shyness…. maybe it was just because it was something new; Grandad has been the one picking her up from school everyday.
But she ran towards me anyway.
And the school entrance was already kinda empty; largely ‘cos she stays for an extra class and most of her friends have left. Either that or it’s ‘cos she was one of the first ones let out.
She asked if I had waited long, in toddler speak. Such mature thinking already….
This morning wasn’t the second time she’d asked me again if I could pick her up again. It wasn’t easy telling her no, partly because it’s slightly confusing for her to understand why our holidays don’t always coincide…
Got a similar simple-pleasures story to share too?
Originally posted 2010-07-21 00:40:19.
We think about the good times, the laughs we had, the activities we did together, the games we played, the things we shared.
These are quite typical memories we have and we conjure up, when we are bored or when we miss those times, and especially so, the people who helped create them.
We usually also conjure up these memories that are from “way back”, like from many years ago.
Well, sometimes, maybe only from a year ago…. Such as with a 5 year old child! Okay she’ll be 6 in November 
Caitlin has been telling me about her current class’ friends, how such-and-such doesn’t want to befriend her anymore, and; more funnily- how some are fickle in that they do, and then don’t, and then do, and don’t, etc. She says these are “not-good” friends. Good friends are ones who stay be-friended to you.
Recall that Caitlin started pre-school at Pre-1 level in 2008, proceeded to Pre-3 in 2009 because they didn’t have Mandarin medium for the Pre-2 level.
It’s probably the case that she had “fonder” memories of the 2009 class than of this year’s. She did make some “notable” friends from that batch. She was accepted as one of them when she joined them at the start of 2009 as a complete stranger to the year-batch that had already been together from 2008. I recall when I dropped her off at school for that first day with that older batch. I peeped through the door to see what she’d do.
Start of some lasting friendships? My own older brother has a friend from waaay back. They are in their late-40′s now; they had known each other since kindergarten!
So this Daddee has made it a point to re-invite her friends from the previous class, who are now already in standard 1 this year, for Caitlin’s birthday party come November; together with her current classmates of 2010. I just hope their phone numbers are still valid…
