I only get to enjoy my mom’s famous dishes like Yim Guk Gai 盐炬鸡 during May Chin’s confinement (“nourishment”) period.  Oh My Lord, it was good!

Good have have Ewan back since Saturday.  Today, we’re experimenting with having Gareth with us a full day after Ewan’s arrival.  I’ll pick Elysia up later from my mom’s place (with other goodies :-)). It’s our way of entering different phases in adjustments as far as parental energy is concerned.

Ouch … I dropped my Canon A70 on Sunday afternoon so it’s a little tragic that I’m camera-less during this week.  I hope the service center will come back to me fast with any quotation for repairs and speed up the repairs ASAP.  They performed well the last time when I had a lens problem.  Canon Malaysia has so far been good to me.

I confess the last two days, I have been contemplating getting a new digital camera.  So far, I’m sticking with Canon which I’m more familiar with.  And it’s funny, when I was a kid, I saw my Dad always using Canons, if fact, I recall his units getting stolen more than once when he accidently left it in his car in England.  I wonder whether I’m subconciously influenced when it comes to brands. 😛

Last night, Ewan had his eyes wide open after 12 midnight before slowly drifting to sleep again.  Looks like he’s a night person because now he’s sleeping soundly and it’s 1:20pm!

Elysia has attached herself to me a little different since the arrival of Ewan.  I’m not sure how to psychoanalyze this phenomena.  She tells me I need to put her to bed, which means staying with her, telling her stories, or simply being there until she falls a sleep (then I can go back to my own sleep … sometimes I just fall asleep first!).

One thing May Chin and I try to do is to assure both Gareth and Elysia we love them.  I call each of them “my favorite”! … Logically, one’s favorite is only one.  But what I’m trying to do in some supra-logical way (note: I didn’t use illogical :-)) affirm all three of our kids as unique, special and loved … in superlative terms.  Perhaps, this is in reaction to the more stereotyped Chinese upbringing where kids are called “stupid”, “naughty” and “bad” in order to do some reverse psychology so they won’t turn out that way.  Times have changed.

And yet, we also noticed that today, many of us parents are tempted to revolve our lives around our kids too much until they over-dominate our lives and decisions.  They become little kings and queens which in some cases borders on unhealthy pampering.  Even if we don’t pamper them, we use them as excuses evade opportunities to relate, to serve or do stuff we would have done when we are single and free.  Both seems to me as being unhelpful for them as children and us as adults in terms of maturity. Children are important, and we value them as God’s gifts to us and this world.  We are indeed responsible for them and need to take this role as parents seriously.  But we do not need to lose who we are in the process, in fact, we should be more open to discover who we are and how we can become better as humans. Because now, there’s more raw material and experiences to reflect on!

Fingers crossed … I need my Canon A70 back! Or …. a step towards a new toy? 🙂