Maegan's Holiday so far

So, what has little Maegan been up to since she's gotten here?

Well, almost everything you can think of. Seriously.

What has her dad been up to since little Maegan started her holiday? Almost everything you can think of as well, keeping up with little miss Maegan. An almost 10 month old baby girl trying to, literally, find her feet walking.

Since we've arrived, we've travelled from Auckland to Tauranga and spent the night at Mt Maunganui, a popular resort called The Mount. Absolutely beautiful and this is where Maegan came face to face with the beach and her little feet walking on sand for the first time. Can't think of a better place to start her beach experience than The Mount.

Travelling further west, the family travelled from The Mount to Te Puke where Maeagan's love affair with apples blossom with her first taste of freshly plucked apples from the apple tree. It was also here that she's had the chance to roll around and play on grass. Something we hardly, actually, never done in Singapore.

The whole family realised we entered Rotorua when everyone thought that Maegan farted. Really, the whole city does smell like Maegan's now famous farts.

It is at Rotorua Maegan had her first ride on the cable car, went under the rain, felt the chill of the south westerly wind, and come face to face with a Maori Warrior and Hakka. She had the chance to play with real life sheep, all the various breed actually.


She got the chance to touch them, play with the sheep dogs and even saw daddy flew.

She saw her first rainbow and wondered where the pot of gold was, saw a lake bigger than the size of Singapore and visited Gollum at Hobbiton.


And now, we're all back in Auckland where she gets into her element best. Shopping. The next few days, Maegan will do what she does best. Visiting shopping centres after shopping centres with her favourite shopping companion, mummy and grandma.

That's a lot for a 9 month old baby to do in the last few days isn't it? The funny thing, she had to come away to NZ before she played at the beach and rolled on the grass. I wonder why.

So while Maegan does all these fun stuff, what does daddy do?

Not sure actually. Daddy simply drove and drove and drove. The last mileage count ... 600Kms and still counting.

Maegan's on Holiday

It's been planned for quite a while.

Taking Maegan on a plane ride somewhere for a holiday was something Daphne and I always talked about doing. 10 hours flight however, wasn't what we had in mind.


But here we are, in the land of the long white cloud, Aoteaora, New Zealand where Daphne's parents, brother, us and Maegan all planning to have a ball of a time.

The next couple of posts will probably be about Maegan's time here in NZ and how Dapne and I will survive without our helper Nina.

By the way, just in case you are wondering, we did survive the 10 hour flight. But that's another story all together. :o)

Till then, enjoy the photos!

To visit the NZ holiday album, click here >>

Nights out not included?

Can a dad ever have a day out without feeling guilty?

Seriously. If you are a dad, do you often get that guilty feeling of having a rare boys night out? That feeling where you feel you should be home rather than enjoy the company of friends in a pub watching football.

That was me on Saturday.

It took me over a week to plan for Saturday. In the football calendar, Liverpool Football Club playing Manchester United Cricket Club at Anfield is probably one of the biggest fixtures and a match that every fan will make time to watch.

So almost a week ago, I started asking Daphne about our plans for the weekend and preparing her for the inevitable of losing her husband for a night to the boys. After the much expected fuss, "Visa" as my friends would call it was obtained.

And so I went.

It didn't help with Daphne's plans to meet friends being cancelled and all of a sudden, I'm seen as the neglecting husband and father leaving my wife and daughter behind to fend for themselves while I enjoy my pint of Kilkenny watching Liverpool play.

The constant thought of how they are doing kept popping up in my mind. Whether Daphne made any plans for dinner or if she's okay alone with Maegan and our helper Nina. Trust me, it gives me no peace of mind right through the night. (perhaps barring the 14 moments when Liverpool almost scored and the dreadful, inevitable moment when Man U did.)

Why did I feel this way? I truly wonder given the fact that it often happens when I have to work or be at the office and Daphne would take Maegan out for shopping or do stuff. So why is it only when I go out to enjoy myself, I feel guilty.

Does it come with the package for all dads like many of Maegan's toys where "night outs are not included"? That it's okay for a dad to work hard for the family but not enjoy a night without them on your side.


I think back on the many business trips that I needed to do leaving Daphne and Maegan in Singapore for 4 - 5 days stretch but I don't get that guilty feeling compared to Saturday. Hmmm... why does that happen?

Not sure really. Maybe it's a guy's thing. Daphne would once in a while have girls night out and seemingly feel ok about it. But when I do it, it's a different story.

The fact is that I really don't know. Can't quite figure it out but I do know that perhaps it's more self-inflicting than I realise. Perhaps it just how dads are. Wanting to know that they can provide for our family and the only time we will leave them behind is so as to bring home more bacon. Maybe it is truly a guys thing.

Either way, I would like to find out. I need to find out. So if you are an experienced dad out there, do share your secret as I need the answer urgently.

Because come Tuesday, Liverpool plays Barcelona and I have a sneaky feeling that I may be watching it without Daphne and Maegan. And unlike Saturday, I do feel that Liverpool will win and I want to enjoy that win.

So ... helpul hints, anyone? :o)

And the Oscar goes to ...

For the first time in almost 12 years, I'm going to miss the Oscars happening tomorrow 9am Singapore time.

I just love the Oscars. I love the way it's done. I love the somewhat rehearsed "unrehearsed" thank you speeches that normally ends with thanking God for their Oscar winning role that is almost ungodly given the flowery languages that modern films contains.

But I'm going to miss it tomorrow. Why? Because I've got a class scheduled. A breaking of tradition to impact the leaders of tomorrow. I take the latter anytime.

Coming back to why I love Oscars, it's really a love affair with great films. Because great films are worth the time to sit in a cinema over and over again, in awe of the magic of the movies.

Every film has a compelling story plot, lovable protaganist, hated antagonist and the magic of pivotal moment where the whole film almost make or break.

Watching Maegan grow up is almost to me like my love affair with great films and Oscars. It used to be that I would make sure I catch every film nominated for Best Film category before the Oscars, like I would make sure I catch every of Maegan's growing moments.


Watching the role reversal between Daphne and I being sometimes the antagonist and Maegan forever being the protaganist.

And like most great films, it lingers on the minds and conversations of people with almost every conversation starting with "did you see Pulp Fiction?" and exchange that opening line with "Maegan's so cuuuutttee. Who does she looks like?" (duh .. cute ... me .. catch the drift ..hee)

Every so often, a pivotal moment arise where Maegan will either stand on her own without support for almost 20 seconds and her parent's jaws wide open in amazement. Or the recent time where she would utter almost comprehensible words that we would take pains to dicipher as if we were Tom Hanks in Da Vinci Code.

It will make a great film I think simply watching Maegan grow. It's a film that I'll never grow tired of. It's a film that makes you laugh mostly, angry at times at the protaganist, and cry when sad moments gets written.

It will be a film that has everything an epic will hail and more importantly, like all Oscar winning films, great looking actors and actresses.

As Shakespeare would say it "All the world's a stage, and every person plays a part, and mine ...

The happy good looking dad one."

:o) Enjoy your Oscars.

Little Miss Maegan growing up

Something spectacular happened on this third day of Chinese New Year. So much so that I'm going to put aside a number of other happenings to talk about this one thing.

It happened just a few hours ago when little miss Maegan was due for bed. Normally, it would take our helper Nina tens of minutes to carry her, coax her and pat her to bed.

Often, she would fuss and cry until either Daphne or I enters the room to rescue her from the evil clutches of Nina who at that very time means bedtime, something she prefers not to at that moment.

But tonight, it was different. She fussed as usual but also, longer than usual.


Daphne and I were in our room when the same cries emits through our baby monitor and to a point, Daphne asked me to check on her. Perhaps to rescue her again and normally to the sanctuary of our bedroom where she will play until she's ready for bed.

As I prepared myself for the inevitable, the cries suddenly stops and peace decended on earth.

I peeped into Maegan's room to find out what's happening and there was little miss Maegan, lying on her bed rolling with her eyes nicely shut, going to sleep all on her own.

She didn't want Nina to carry her. No patting tonight thank you very much. I'm going to sleep on my own tonight she seems to say.

And sleep she did, on her own without assistance at all.

Wow. Like every good thing, I'm praying, fasting and petitioning God that it will not be a fluke.

I've just checked the moon. Thankfully it's not blue.

So, little miss Maegan is really growing up. It's one night that absolutely made my day.

:o)

p.s. New Album's out by the way. >>

Blogging Memories

When you first start a blog, you often stop and wonder if anyone really takes precious time to read your blog at all. You place counters to see how many people actually viewed it and from what countries. After a while, it starts becoming a routine and whenever you blog, you see your blog's traffic.

As time progresses, the counters start taking a back seat and you find yourself blogging without really worrying about the fact if anyone is actually reading because your blog is more for you. It's your way of keeping memories.

Then comes a time when you know you are in deep trouble when your wife scolds you for not blogging because she spends time reading other people's blogs and you haven't blog for the last few weeks.

It tells you two things. One, at least your wife reads your blog. Two, your subtle hints of getting a XBox 360 is reaching the right ears ... well ... more like the right pair of eyes.

That's me for the last few weeks.

It has been a great start to the year which also means that I'm getting busier. Maegan's growing older which also means that she is getting to be more of a handful. A crying non-crawling baby is a whole lot easier to take care of then a screaming speed crawler. (I'll come to that in another post)

The one thing no one told me about being dad and running a not-for-profit enterprise at the same time is that time becomes the most sought after commodity, displacing many other things, even, money. Apparently, it gets worse as you grow older.

So this Chinese New Year, I'm sneaking time at my brother's place blogging. Maegan's sleeping and everyone else is watching Happy Feat.

I've got so much I want to blog but I just need to find time that I can blog meaningfully. Because this blog is my way of capturing memories that often skips me by each day. So many things that happens between work and family passes me by because I don't take time to sit, remember and reflect all that has happened. The happy moments and sometimes, painful moments. Both very much a part of my memory.

If you are like Daphne, often returning to this blog to see how Maegan is doing, I apologise for the lack of updates. This Chinese New Year on, it should get better.

Because if I don't start blogging, I may miss the many moments that Maegan has in this wonderful phase that she's at. The speedy crawler phase where a blink of the eye often determines if the vase on the living room side table drops or not.

Do pop in once in a while because wherever you are, however often you read this blog, you are very much a part of this memory lane as we see Maegan grow up together.

Hmmm... did I mention anything about Daphne reading about the XBox?

Oh well, nevermind. :o)

By the way, Happy Chinese New Year to you. Our first lunar new year with Maegan. It has been a blast!

Mummy's view of Me being dad

This is not an easy way out but Daphne's latest entry in her blog on AsiaOne brought so much laughter into my life that I have to have it here. :o)

If you do not know, Maegan and Daphne have been a regular feature on www.asiaone.com under Mummy's Diary. It's Daphne's blog and our daughter is famous. Just.

Her latest one is one I must share here.

http://justwoman.asiaone.com.sg/motherhood/diaries/20070123_001.html

Have fun reading. :o)

Shake, rattle and roll.

What's the best way to keep an active young girl occupied?

Enroll her into gym class. That's precisely what we did.

Since discovering her acrobatic abilities to climb, crawl and sit, little miss Maegan has been keeping everyone (especially her grandparents) busy preventing vases from falling and her from hitting her head at tables and chairs. To be precise, the legs of tables and chairs.

And boy can she crawl. Fast, focused and committed. Not just that, she climbs everywhere. From her cot to the sofa. From our living room to her bedroom, Maegan just loves her new found freedom.

Hence our grand plan of giving her a huge place to crawl, fall and roll. Gym class.


Every saturday afternoon, Maegan will be crawling with 13 other babies with parents in tow all shaking, rattling and rolling. Often, the parents provides more amusement than the babies. Us included.

Maegan loves it and I'm clocking that 45mins with her, running around, carrying her and crawling with her as my weekly exercise.

I certainly need it more than her. :o)

Daughter vs Daddy

Daughters have a way of getting the their dad's nerves. Agree?

Maegan surely does.


She has been upset with me recently because I make her sit in her car seat when she obviously doesn't want to.

She refuses to let me carry her, look at her nor play with her because she sees me as the evil dad who refuses to let her have her way.

You know how it's like, you will make all your funny faces, smiles at her, tickle her and when you stretch your hands to her wanting to carrr her, she turns away.

Worse still, when she knows that I'm upset and looking at her, she will look at me for a moment and stretches herself on the shoulder of her mum and cuddles her.

And she's barely 8 months!!!!!!!!!!

The life of being dad. I wonder what it will be like when she's 8 or 18?

Anyone has a crystal ball? :o)

First post of 2007

Now, how should I start this post?

Merry Christmas? Well, a little belated but still, a Merry Christmas to you.

Happy New Year? Well, could be. But I think I'll start my first post of the year with this ...

It's been great being dad.

2006 couldn't have been a better year for me. To be perfectly honest, it's been a trying year on the work front but to become a dad makes everything, every hard work, every sponsorship pitch, every leadership training I've done all worth it.

So many things happened in 2006 that you wonder how to pen everything down but seeing Maegan born tops everything.

I've enjoyed my last 7 months being dad. We celebrated our first Christmas together with Maegan. We woke up on Christmas morning with her on our bed and headed straight to our Christmas tree to open all her presents.

The truth is that she wanted the wrappers more than the presents but still, it was great just opening all our presents together and later in the night, family coming over for our Christmas dinner.

And now, the first day of the new year brings new adventures to come.

Daphne and I are talking about how we are going to celebrate our 30th birthday and how plan to celebrate Maegan's first. We talked about a McDonald's party (For us, not Maegan) and how wonderful the day would be when she turns one.

There's so much to look forward to in 2007. With family, with work. Most of all, I'm looking forward seeing Maegan grows up.

I think it will be fun seeing her start walking. Can't wait for that day.

So this first post of the new year, I'll start with "It's been great being dad."

Because it's true, 2006 couldn't have been any better. :o)

Happy New Year everyone!

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)

It's finally happened

Mark this date. 25 November 2006.

A significant milestone happened this very day. I've been looking forward to this day since Maegan was born, albiet with fear and trembling. Not a day I look forward to excitedly by the day I knew will come but just not sure when.

It's funny how you look forward to something you don't want to happen. You know it will happen someday but you just wonder how you, as a new dad, will react when it finally does.

You start wondering how it's going to happen, if it will ever happen, cross your fingers hoping that it will never happen and prepare your mind so that when it finally happens, you will be calm and ready to take care of it.

Well, it has finally happened. I'm just glad Maegan is still smiling, crying and doing everything she would always do, including pooing 3 times on 3 different pampers, all within 10 mins.

Yes, Maegan is doing just fine. Thank God.

So mark this date. 25 November 2006. What happened?

Well, she just fell off our bed that's all. :o(

Between a rock and a hard place

I just realised that being dad doesn't stop at my daughter. It includes managing grandparents.

In management, we call it Managing Upwards.

Reason for my enlightenment? Maegan's foray into the world of solids. She loves it. She loves the taste of carrots, veges and fish. Yes, fish at six months. We did recall our doctor saying to keep fish away for until she is a little older but baby nutrition books seem to say otherwise.

Either way, Maegan loves it but not her skin it seems. She's basically broke out in a slight rash and we have no clue which ingredient is causing it.

Asking Daphne's mum to stop feeding her fish ends up with her being upset about her work of love. Talk about being in between a rock and a hard place.


My mum is no different.

It seems that the moment Maegan can take solids, every food is a possible try for her by my mum. It's not just with Maegan but with my niece and nephew as well. She will try to give them food that my brother and sister-in-law says no to but she will still try anyway.

What's up with grandparents? If being a new dad is hard enough, talk about managing new grand parents.

Hmm.. anyone have any suggestions? I can certainly make do with some at this moment. :o)

It takes a lot to feed

How many people does it take to feed a baby? Four.

Yes, it takes four people to feed our little princess her cereals and now her porridge.

Her mummy will sit infront of her with a small little spoon full of sumptious porridge and like the B2 bombers flying into the war zone, the spoon flies, complete with the flight sound and straight into an open airstrip affectionately called, The Mouth.


Nina our helper stands behind holding Maegan down to her sit so that she does not move about so much that half the porridge ends up on her face instead of her mouth.

Her grandmother and grandfather stands in front of her making all the funny faces and sound just so that she would concentrate on the food before her and eat her fill.

Four adults just to feed one growing baby. I never knew feeding solids is so tough. Wouldn't it be better if Maegan just kept drinking milk? :o)

Well, just in case you are wondering what her daddy was doing when everyone was feeding Maegan? Well, I was busy taking photos!

Very important you know. :o)

6 months

Come Saturday, Maegan turns six months.

Yup, how time flies.

It really didn't seem that long ago when Barcelona beats Arsenal in the Champions League final, the very day my princess was born. The one event that changed my life completely.

Now six months on, I'm learning more as a dad. I've managed to decode the various MaeVin Ci codes. Pooh, Wee, Food or Me. Either one, it starts now with a very loud cry. Talk about seeking for attention!

Maegan has grow so much. She's now starting to learn how to crawl. Knees on the floor and buttocks up seems to be her favourite trick lately. She moves forward but slowly. I think my in-laws are getting worried the day she crawls fast. They'll have a hard time chasing her.

Her vocabulary is also improving. She's making more distinct noises with a couple that are her favourite words. "Daddy looks great!" is what she seem to be saying.

She loves to talk. Make funny sound and faces and blowing bubbles so hard that her face turns red.

It's been six months. It's great news that I've survived so far being dad. More importantly, Maegan is growing well and nicely.

I wonder what the next 6 months will bring.

More pooh? :o)

Night Dad

Am I a night time dad?

Why the question? Well, just a while ago on our way back from my in-laws, Daphne said that I'm more active in playing with Maegan at night when I come home after a long day of work.

Since she said that, I've been thinking a little about it.

Perhaps it's true. I love coming home to Maegan. Work is becoming increasingly demanding on my time. I'm slowly learning that running a charity is not an easy task let alone having a family to fend for at the same time. But, precisely having Maegan to go home to makes work all the more meaningful.


It's great fun the moment I step into the house. Both Daphne and I would go at the top of our voices "Guess who's back?" and we would search around for our little baby girl. Sometimes she would be with her grandma smiling at us or she would be no where to be found only to later return with smiling grandparents lugging goods from Malaysia. (Yes, my daughter has more travel chops on her passport than me)

We would have our dinner and I would play with her, carry her, cuddle her and often, volunteer to carry her from her car seat back home.

In the morning is somewhat different.

I often drag myself out of bed and after freshening up, I'll come out to our dining table for breakfast but not before seeing Maegan wide awake and playing. She would smile and get all excited. It's nice waking up to see your daughter smiling at the sight of you,.

I'll would carry her for a while, followed by my breakfast and papers. Morning routine. My mind would be filled with the meetings I have before me and getting ready for work.

A peg on her check and desperately trying to get her learn how to wave goodbye, I'm off to work.

Just like that.

So, perhaps there is a little difference between me in the morning and at night. Perhaps I am a night Dad.

I love her all the same but mornings are just a different time for me. I wonder if she notices the difference. I guess I'm just not a morning person. But then again, my friends from Kiwiland will tell you that it's nothing new.

They don't call me Possum* for nothing do they? :o)

*Possums are a beaver like animal that comes alive at night but sleeps in in the morning. A protected species in Australia but a pest in New Zealand.