Kayrin Saves the Day!

Kayrin was playing super-heroes with Shaw Feng a few nights ago, and I was pottering around in the bathroom in my pre-shower ritual, when I heard this amid the jumping around on the bed while Super-Hero Kayrin tries to take off from the bed in her sarong cape:

"I saved you Daddy, I saved the day!" Kayrin shouted.

I stuck my head out of the en-suite, with contact lenses in the palm of my hand, and asked Shaw Feng if he had heard what I just did. Amazing what she learns from TV.

A Letter for Sooz, Kayrin's Godma

Dear Sooz, I've only just developed that roll of film sitting in the Nikon SLR. Yes, I'm still using those old SLR cameras. I only realized it was an `ancient' way of taking photos when last week, after taking a pix of Kayrin, she came running over and said, `Let me see, let me see.' She was totally flummoxed that there was no image to see at the back of the camera where the screen is supposed to be. She couldn't understand when I explained that I'll have to get the film developed before she could see the pix. She kept wanting to `open' the camera to peer inside. I was stumped too.

Two of a Kind (the Singlet Kind)

What We Wear

One thunderstormy evening. And Kayrin insists on going to the playground. So here she is, in her weird colourful garb (not a reflection of my dress sense, of course), and directing us where to head to.

Life's more than just about what we wear,
Life's more fun when we don't care,
But only to a certain extent, wouldn't you say?
Because other times, it's about living life wonderfully our way.

I love putting together words this way. I should gather my little poems into somewhere. Some day, may be.

Happy Father's Day, Shaw Feng

I remember the year you took off work, taking care of Kayrin.
I remember the first few weeks after Kayrin arrived,
you held her till the wee hours of the morning so that I'm not bleary-eyed.
These days, you're her best playmate on the Web
Her teacher on what to do on the Internet.
I see the love you have for her
I see the adoration in her eyes every night.
So from Kayrin and I,
Happy Father's Day and Happy Birthday come July!

Vaseline

My jottings will always start with "One evening," I realize, because that's when I give Kayrin my attention, for all of one hour or less.

And so, one evening two days ago, Kayrin decided to bring a tub of Vaseline to her bedside. Daddy raised his eyebrows at her when he saw her sticking her fingers in. (It's Vaseline mommy uses as lip gloss, really.)

"My lips are cracked," Kayrin said, pouting her lips and pointing to them, for daddy's benefit. "I need to put lip gloss on my lips."

There goes my lip gloss. The following night, it was experimenting with mommy's Clarins shaping facial lift cream. http://my.clarins.com/main.cfm?prodID=603

"What are you doing with mommy's stuff??" I asked, frantically trying to pry her little fingers off the pump.

"My face is cracked and I need cream."

That's my baby growing up fast.

Kayrin, all of eight days old, in Eastern Lagoon 2, S'pore.

Ambition

Michael Buble's CD was playing in the room, and it was around Kayrin's bedtime, when the cheeky three-year old pointed to the CD cover and asked who that was.
`That's Michael Buble, darling,' I said.
`What does Uncle Buble do?' Kayrin asked.
I told her he sings and makes lots of money doing that and that she can sing as a career too. Immediately sensing this an opportunity to talk about ambition and careers, I asked, `What do you want to be when you grow up?'
`A firefighter,' came the reply, without any hesitance.
`Why,' I ventured, while thinking I should have led her down the `right' path about careers before she was even two.
`Because...I want to rescue people in buildings.'
`Wow, mommy's so proud of you,' I said, thinking such a noble cause shouldn't be put down.
Soozhana, Kayrin's godma in New York, got to hear about it over the mail the very next day because mommy was eager to share.

The following evening, upon coming home from work, I decided to get into the ambition talk again.
`What do you want to be when you grow up, darling?'
`A zebra. Bee-cau-se I want to live in Ah-fri-kahhhh.'

So much about noble ambitions. ;)