Adino Online

These are some more photos I took two weekends ago. I think she looks really cute in the dino onesie she’s wearing.

Captions are below the photos.

Blur expression.

Close up side profile

Starting to smile

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First of all, let me confess that I hate washing my car. More often than not, it will rain several hours after I wash my car and it will get dirty again.

In the past few weeks I have been using my dad’s Honda Siti because he went overseas, and so I left my Proton Wiira parked outside my condo.

I don’t want to say it’s supernatural, mystical, magical or even ethereal. I’m sure there is a perfectly illogical explanation to the incident.

You see, after two weeks exposed to the outdoor weather and parked under some trees, it accumulated a shocking amount of dust, rainwater stains, bird poo doos, and dry leaves.

Each time I went to warm up my car, I would try my best to clear off whatever debris I could from my car. I didn’t want the management to think that it was abandoned, because they tow abandoned cars away.

Two weeks ago I took some tissues to wipe off some of the bird poo doo that had been baked dry from the roof of my car.

After I was done, my car looked a bit funny. If you looked at the dust stains, you will know the owner tried to clean his car using a tissue.

Last Sunday after I returned the Honda Siti to my dad, I went to get my car and it was clean! No dust stains, no poo doo, no leaves!

Someone had mysteriously washed my car for me, either by mistake or by charity.

Thank you, whoever you are!

I think I will park my car outside my condo again this weekend.

Photo: Keran McKenzie

This is a picture I took of my cup of instant oats one morning. Don’t ask me why I always like to take pictures of stuff on my dining table. Maybe that’s the only area in my condo with good natural lighting.

I wanted to capture the hot steam coming out of the cup, but I guess the light was too dim. In the top right corner of the photo is an accidental reflection of Poey Chin’s cup of milky Milo.

Anyway, to get on the topic of today’s post, I’ve been having more daddyhood contemplations recently.

First of all, I have to decide pretty soon about getting medical insurance for baby Rachel. If that decision wasn’t difficult enough, most insurance plans come together with a child education or investment option.

I don’t really have a lot of time to do research, but I know I have to. This is a 20 year commitment, not something to be taken lightly.

Second, I have also been playing with the idea of transmigrating to a different city. Somewhere with a lower cost of living, less traffic jams, lower population, and friendlier neighbours.

Somewhere like Ipoh.

The only major problems I see are finding a job, and being further away from my family. It’s going to be hard to find a job that pays the same, if I can even find a job in the first place.

Then there’s a need to plan for Rachel’s education.

Then there’s a need to prepare financially for a second baby.

There’s just so much to think about. So much to plan.

So little time.

Today’s blog post title sounds like it could be used for a new blog name. What do you think? Do you think there’s a market for a daddy blog called DaddyhoodContemplations.com?

I had a flashback to 21 years ago, when I first stepped foot in primary school at SK Sri Petaling in Petaling Jaya.

*cue that flash back, waves on the ocean sound you always hear in Lost*

I didn’t really know what was going on around me. Well, I knew it was my first day in school. I don’t remember if I was looking forward to it or not. Probably not.

My mother brought me to school, and we stepped foot in my class. I found myself in 1 Melur, which was at the end of the block facing the main road.

I remember three things very clearly from that day. One, my mother leaving me there and telling me she would wait in the canteen for me.If I remember correctly, she was wearing a blue Esprit t-shirt.

Two, there was a boy who wouldn’t stop crying. His face and eyes were all red.

Three, someone pooped in their pants that day, causing a little bit of drama in the class room.

It was a hot day, and I don’t remember what the teachers taught. I just remember being so bored during English lessons. They were teaching ABCs for goodness sake.

My teacher was a lady called Mrs Yoong, who was always dressed in cheong sams.

Recess time came and I just followed everyone to the canteen. I think I met with my mother… I don’t remember that. But I remember a lot of kids pushing all around me to buy food.

I remember assemblies at the hall. At that time, the library was still upstairs, and the hall was located where the library is now. But that’s a story for another day.

Photo: Google Maps

In the past few weeks, I’ve been spending a few minutes in the morning doing some push up (pumping) exercises. At first, Poey Chin looked at me funny until I explained to her what I was doing.

I found One Hundred Push Ups, a website that promises to teach you how to do 100 consecutive push ups if you follow their six week program.

Now, I have to confess to everyone that I am hopeless at doing push ups. I used to struggle to do even 3. I had to cheat if I wanted to reach 5.

I’m so happy to report that after I’ve followed the hundred push ups program for two weeks, I’m already able to do 15 in a row.

I hope that I will be able to reach 100 by the end of the six week program.

Why do I want to be able to do that? It’s just something that I was really bad at, and being able to do a hundred will be a wonderful personal victory.

Recently I have also had another breakthrough. I have been experimenting with the front crawl (freestyle) when I swim. I always found it hard to move forward, and I had to use a lot of shoulder strength to move.

One day I realized that my feet were pointing the wrong way as I was kicking. The way I was kicking actually made me move backwards. So I pointed my feet back, like a scuba fin, and I could move through the water with less effort!

My next target: do the butterfly stroke.

I also have this recurring dream where I can run and not get tired. In my dreams I would run everywhere at full sprinting speed.

I wonder if it’s possible for that dream to come true. Maybe I can do that in heaven.

*cue Pink Panther theme*

Okay, I know. I’m just too lazy to go find the midi, then embed it in this blog post, only to have you block it out with Adblock Plus.

One afternoon, baby Rachel was sleeping peacefully on Adino and Poey Chin’s bed. She was dreaming her baby dreams, unaware that she was going to get a surprise visitor. 

Daddy and mummy had bought a puppy called Baby Patrick for Rachel using Uncle JL’s generous gift of Canadian dollars. Baby Patrick fell in love with Rachel immediately. He snuck up to baby Rachel slowly, wagging his tail in excitement.

Baby Patrick realized that daddy was watching him. He was a very well trained puppy, and didn’t want to do anything without daddy’s permission. He turned to look at daddy, and seemed to be asking for approval. “Go ahead,” Adino said. 

Baby Patrick leaps onto Rachel’s tummy and crawled forward. Almost there, baby Patrick. Just an inch away! 

Mua! Baby Patrick plants a kiss on baby Rachel’s lips. Thus begins the epic tale of Baby Rachel and Baby Patrick.

Their adventure continues…

Several things happened to me recently that have put some doubt into my heart.

I used to have a very sharp memory. I could remember things like phone numbers of all my friends, the periodic table, the anatomy of the human heart and how many hit points a sand worm has.

Now I can’t even remember simple things.

Let me give you three solid examples.

1. I can’t remember why I entered a room.

I find myself pausing at the kitchen or in my room, and trying to remember why I walked there in the first place. Sometimes I will be holding something totally irrelevant (like a phone).

I don’t know if this has happened to you, but it is happening more frequently now that baby Rachel is here.

My self-prognosis is I’m trying to multi-task too much, to the point where I lose track of individual threads. I need to implement a better Serializer (lame Java joke), or get a better JNDI provider (another lame Java joke).

2. I’m driving to the wrong places

The other night as I was driving to CG in USJ Subang. As I approached the Federal Highway, I turned towards KL.

I was so used to driving to work, that I didn’t realize anything until Poey Chin asked me why I am going in the opposite direction.

Do you think there’s anything wrong with me?

I used to have a very sharp memory. I could remember things like phone numbers of all my friends, the periodic table, the anatomy of the human heart and how many hit points a sand worm has.

Now I can’t even remember simple things.

I think there’s definitely something wrong.

Ladies and gentlemen, babies and puppies, presenting the first ever smiley photos of baby Rachel.

Look out Miss Malaysia.

It’s very rare to catch her in such a good mood. I think the window of opportunity is open for about 10 minutes, twice a day. 

Daddy this is my Sammi Cheng impersonation. Can I work for SKII?

I think she has Poey Chin’s eyes, but when she smiles… her eyes look like mine. What do you think?

One smile from her and I forget all my stress, all my fatigue.

Mua mua mua! I can’t stop kissing her.

Starting to get cranky. Photo shoot session is over.

She is absolutely adorable, the cutest baby I ever saw in my life. How I wish she will be in this good mood all the time.

As you could probably guess by now, I have just uploaded my photos from my camera to my computer. Look out for baby Rachel photo overload in the next several posts.

Today I will show you some photos I took of Rachel, and the theme is sleeping. When I took these photos, she was about 5 to 6 weeks old.

How I wish she can sleep so peacefully all the time!

I took this shot as she was taking a morning nap in our living room.

She’s so cute, sometimes I don’t want to go to work because I’ll miss her.

In this photo she looks exactly like my sister Lydia.

Rachel taking an afternoon nap in her baby cot in our room. We tried letting her sleep on her tummy to help her pass gas more comfortably. We got a Safe n Sound pillow with holes to prevent suffocation.

Daddy and mama loves you so much baby

Baby’s eyes. Some say looks like me, some say looks like Poey Chin.

Baby has Poey Chin’s ears.

Sometimes she smiles when she sleeps. I always ask her what she dreams about. She doesn’t want to tell me anything.

About three weeks ago we had a party at my parents’ house to celebrate baby Rachel’s full moon.

Photo captions are below the pictures.

My in laws

My family, sans my sister Lydia who’s in Melbourne.

Amber. The tunnel blur effect happened because I was trying to zoom in fast, but I missed her cute pose.

My mom’s family. We had a few tables laid out in the porch for the buffet dinner.

Sushi my handsome Shih Tzu was all dressed up for the occasion.

He was confined to the kitchen area, and entertained the kids throughout the night.

I didn’t take many more photos because I started to get really sweaty, and I didn’t want to get my clothes all wet.

I miss Sushi.

You’re the only dog I’ll ever love,
I’ll do anything not to give you up,
If I could only stop the world,
When you’re sitting by my side,
See I’m having the time of my life,
Yes I’m having the time of my life

Adapted and modified from Mark Schultz’s “The Time of My Life”