A hapless father

It has to happen. We knew it from experience with our first child, when she was 3 months old.

I'm only thankful that our second child was more than 8 months when it was his turn.

Snowylady asked me first what I think we should do.

Putting on my bravest face, I told her I'll handle both the kids myself.

She smiled, and then asked her mother whether I could bring the kids to their grandmother's place to be fed and bathed. After all, nice of me to have volunteered, but let's not kid ourselves, shall we?

It's the annual teacher's day dinner, the one event which Snowylady looks forward to as being appreciated for all the crap she had been putting up and all the sacrifices she made for other people's children.

And she cannot bring her kids along. This was the challenge as both our kids are nursed on mother's milk.

We had some savings when the first one came, so we managed to have mummy stay home as long as possible.

But sadly, mummy cannot stay home as long for the second one. Teaching the young one to drink from the bottle, after being nursed directly since birth, was a heart-wrenching experience. There was a bond which we felt was stretched to be point of breaking.

But learned to drink from the bottle he did, my brave Snowylad. And so at work, mummy kept expressing so that junior can have his feed in infantcare.

But bottles don't work at night. He knows it's night time, he has learned that that's when mummy comes home to take him in her arms. He wants her, and he's prepared to go hungry and sleepless until he gets her. We had seen it before, 3 years ago.

When Snowylass was 3 months old, mummy was invited for the Teacher's Day Dinner even though she's on no-pay leave. She made sure to leave lots of milk expressed for Snowylass. Snowylass gobbled two bottles down, and refused to be comforted. (She already had 2 bottles, we can't overstuff her) Mummy had to leave the dinner early (hasn't even eaten) and rushed back in a cab.

At 8 months old, Snowylad lasted longer, but eventually, also refused the bottle. Fortunately, at 8 months old, he's more cranky than hungry. And as it so happens, grandmother had a prior appointment with the local MP on some housing matters, so she consented to let me bring the 2 kids out to jalan-jalan near the venue where mummy's dinner was held. Otherwise, grandma would be fussing no ends, be stressed and yet hesitate to let daddy handle it.

All I could say is, we survived. Snowylass was there to try to comfort her brother, distract him, though she demonstrated some not good stuff when I said we need to get longs for her brother (I forgot to pack it).

Mummy finished her dinner, and met us. Snowylass heard me talking to mummy on the mobile, and was very eager. But why I loved her so, was when I told her when mummy arrives, she won't be the first to get mummy.

She looked a bit stunned, and asked who gets mummy first. I asked her to guess, and she guessed brother. I said wrong. She looked again, and then asked if it would be me.

Hooray!!!

Finally, she recognises that Daddy also have a right to get Mummy, not just her and brother.

Sleepness nights ...

I'm sure this time, it's really teething. IT BETTER BE!!! Or I don't know what I'll do to that little bugger.

Anyone with more than one young child can probably affirm that clearing up can only take place after the kiddies went to bed. So that means papa and mama, no matter how tired, can only go to sleep much later than the kids.

And when both kids sleep in the same room, allowing one to cry all night is not an option.

I carrried him, sang to him, let him have a pre-cooled teething ring ... and nothing lasts more than too short a while.

All he wanted was to nurse in his mother's arms, the same mother who has to be in school at 7am in the morning.

Snowylad is very, very different from his sister, though my wife reminded me that I probably can't recall how we made it through Snowylass' teething nearly 2 years ago. Actually, it was probably this same amnesia that brought us Snowylad.

And my friend Francois is contemplating another child, so I guess it's a universal condition.

Strangely enough, I notice that while I can't survive all-nighters playing computer games or working or watching videos or talking nonsense with friends like I used to, but I can do it when it's because of carrying crying babies, crying at illegal decibels right next to my poor ears.

My next door neighbours were playing mahjong at their balcony again. They always do it whenever there's a weekend or public holiday, long before I move in. Because of that, I figured that everyone will be understanding when I carried a crying Snowylad back and forth between the living room and the balcony.

I think I better take some power naps in the office today.

New Album 2

Snowy family

He learnt to drink from straws all by himself before 7 months old

Sickness sucks

And I thought this was the year I could go through without having to take any MCs ...

With snowylad in the house, and snowylady back at work, I was pretty thankful that I was heatlhy enough to do my duties, until yesterday.

Bad things never seem to come singly. First, it was the first time since Y2K cutover that I had to go to work on Saturday, leaving an exhausted snowylady to manage the 2 kids alone.

Then I came down with 39.2 degrees fever, muscle aches and bad cough and phlegm. What's more worrying is in my small place, contact with the youngs is unavoidable. Despite being tired herself, Snowylady personally administered the medication to me. It was only today after she left for work that I looked at my prescription for myself.

There's a lot to do in the office this week actually, after 6 days of vendor presentations last week which went into 5pm Saturday. But I am priviliged enough to have a job that allows me to just shoot an email to the office. The previous week, Snowylady went to work despite being issued an MC, worried that her absence would mean more work piling up.

Usually, when I'm ill, I indulged in food, reasoning that if my body was enjoying itself, it'd be too busy to feel ill. But this time the medication leaves a very bitter aftertaste in the mouth for hours and really kills my appetite.

Looking forward to when the kids are older, and Snowylady and I can resume exercises to keep ourselves fitter.

Office politics

How can any senior management say "No." to saving >S$20,000 per annum in cost of maintenance of IT systems?

But in some organizations, it seems that cost savings itself is not sufficient justification to take away the pet system of a particularly powerful member of the senior management, even if he is the only active user. And we were offering the same functionality, only through another application which is no less robust.

I never thought of playing office politics, but I've read enough and attended some professional courses to realise that yes, it happens in real life, even in major corporations, and if I want things to change, I gotta to know what's inside the mind of that "Mandarin",

It's not just that if I pull this off, I got something nice to add to my annual performance review on meeting, or even exceeding my KPI. (First thing to bear in mind that it is my (group's) KPI, not the Mandarin's KPI.

It's not just that my own group leader also wanted a feather in the cap.

Part of it is me can't stand to see inefficient use of IT, i.e., IT pride.

Another part is professional pride.

Unlike other over promoted mediocres who cannot stand the idea of having their own budget cuts, I happen to know this particular Mandarin is rather good at his job and not so LC (low-class).

From all the past courses and books I read, if I'm gonna get anywhere, I gotta get inside the mind of this Mandarin, and that means I got to "Ah" with him if I'm to make any progress.

Personally, I've disdained office politics, and I'm wondering after more than 10 years of staying aloof (and paying the price, politically), this is where I start the first step to 'crossing over to the Dark Side'.

*sigh*