It's crazy and ilogical

Believe it or not, being dad is often, crazy and illogical.

Why do I say that?

Well, many things you do as dad is beyond pure logic and many times, at the spur of the moment.

You walk into a toy store and you never seem to leave without buying something. Even if it's a small thing. You see your baby reaching for a bright yellow soccer ball and the first thing that hits your mind is "she likes that so let's get it!" and that very yellow ball goes straight into the supermarket basket and thru the checkout counter.

You see your daugther so excited when she gets the chance to hammer away on your laptop and the next time you are at a kids fair, you buy her a toy laptop with a grand picture in your mind that she gets to play with hers while you work on yours.

More than just simply buying stuff, you act differently as well.

Your voice changes when your baby comes on the phone. Your voice goes all soft and high pitch with almost every sentence that comes out from your mouth a question. Never a statement.

You reach home and instead of opening the door and walk straight through, you open the door slowly and peep in to see if your daughter is waiting for you and when she does see you, you stand at the door shouting across the red sea hoping that she would jump for joy at the sight of her dad coming home. When she does, your heart melts.

You grab her from your mother-in-law because you haven't seen your precious for almost 8 years ... I meant ... 8 hours and you ask every question that comes to your mind about what she has done for the last 8 hours knowing full well that at 7 months old, she probably don't understand a single question you are asking let alone reply.

So you do crazy things. You make funny noises. You do funny actions and you contort funny faces to make your precious baby smile, giggle and laugh.


What's more crazy about it? You enjoy every moment of it. You enjoy buying the toy even though it seems to deplete your bank account . You enjoy bringing the toy home and making her smile even though you know she'll be more interested in the wrapper more than the toy. You enjoy being silly even though you risk being seen like a fool because your baby's chuckle and smile will make your day.

Crazy and illogical isn't it? :o)

Happy 7th Month Birthday Maegan!

Maegan turns 7 month today.

7 months. Wow. Seems not too long ago that I literally saw her entering this world and now, she smiles at me like a small little girl with a huge grin. All of 7 months.


What has happened this 7 months? Come to think of it, quite a fair bit.

For one, she was born. (With lots of hair I might add) 18 May 2006. She got her first taste of milk and her first day of home. Celebrated her one month at her grandma's place and saw mummy cried the first day she went back to work.

Started turning in bed and found her one day waking up with back facing up. Had her first nightmare and her first haircut.

Took her first holiday to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and held her first milk bottle all by herself. And of course, said her first "pa pa" followed by "ma" in that order (ok.. I'm bias)

Watched her first soccer game and golf game with her daddy and stayed over at Grandma's place for the first time when mummy went to Tokyo for a week. Started crawling, climbing and sitting on her own. She even recited The Lord's Prayer except that we couldn't make out any of the words she was saying.


And only just recently, she fell sick for the first time, coughed with flam, runny nose and fever all at the same time and just a few days ago, her first tooth appears.

So much has happened in this 7 months. She's such a joy.

Today like every 18th, I walk into a toy store to buy her a toy. Just to celebrate her 7th month birthday. Like they all say, you only be 7 months once.

Right baby? :o)

To Santa with love

Postcard from Maegan to Santa ...

Dear Santa,

This is my very first Christmas. I'm kind of excited about what Christmas will be like but more importantly, I'm wondering what presents I'll get this Christmas.


I was checking through my store and all the toys lying around, I realised that I actually already have a lot of toys that daddy, mummy, grandma and everyone who buys for me.

I had a sneak peak at my wardrobe and saw enough clothes to last me till 16 years old and enough shoes ... (okay, mummy said before that we will never have enough shoes). So looking at all that is around me, I do have a lot of stuff already.

So what should I ask for Christmas? Santa, do you have any ideas?

I kept seeing mummy and daddy talking on their handphone and I thought it would be great for me to have one too and almost magic, grandma bought me one recently. And it's pink!

Just the other day, I got a chance to play with daddy's laptop (the one with an apple on it. looks very cool!) and it was fun hitting it like daddy does almost every night when he works. So I thought maybe I can have that for Christmas but the very next day, daddy bought me one. No apple on the cover but it's still really cool to have my own laptop.

So what should I ask for? What do other kids ask for Santa? I do have other things I like to have but Christmas should be special. I think I like to ask for something that is special. Something really special ...

Hmm..... I know. Santa, can I have please have an XBox360? Daddy says it's would be great for my education. What do you think?

If that is too heavy for Rudolf to carry, I will settle for my two front teeth. One's coming up already but having two Christmas would be very nice.

Ok Santa?

Love, Maeagan.

I ran, I conquered and I almost died

3 December 2006 will be remembered as the day I ran the first half-marathon in my entire life.


Yes, me, Martin Tan, one who hardly exercise because he believes he has done enough exercise playing golf and soccer on his XBox, ran 21.1Km today in his personal best time of 3hr 43mins (well, personal best since it was my first run) at the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon.

The fact is that I ran some parts of it and walked most part of it and in all honesty, there were many times during the run that I wondered why I actually did it. It was some parts enjoyable but towards the last few kilometres, absolutely torturous. My legs is absolutely in pain even right now as I type!

So why did I do it? Well, apart from trying to fulfil my only new year resolution ever, I wanted to do it for Maegan. I wanted Maegan to have a dad that gave a shot at doing something and not simply talking about it. Even if I wasn't confident about it at all, I'll at least give it a shot.

I told Daphne (who ran a brilliant 10km by the way) that my objective wasn't to set a time but rather to finish. With a finisher medal now in my hands, I can at least tell Maegan when she grows up that one of the things that her daddy did was to take part in a marathon. (Ok.. half)

So when the time comes when she stands in front of something that she wanted to accomplish but not sure if she can do it, she can at least have one story of how her dad almost killed himself running a half-marathon with a finisher medal for keeps.

So yes, I ran, I conquered and I almost died.

If only they have leg transplant. Mine's aching like nobody's business!

Chews, bites and drools

What's up with babies putting everything in their mouths?

Maegan puts everything, and I mean almost everything she can get her hands on in her mouth. She chews, bites and drools all over the toys she plays with, including my collar and mummy's work access pass.

I'm told that babies explores the word by tasting things but surely there are better ways than to put everything in the mouth. Either way, she wins. It's really hard to stop her doing it.

So we ease the pain by buying her lots of teething toys which we freeze and affectionately calls it her ice-cream. She loves it. She would hold it, puts it in her mouth and chews. She smiles and looks at you with grateful eyes and with one hand holding her ice-cream, her other hand reaches out to her book and grabs it and ...


You guess it, puts right in her mouth. We can only smile. :o)