Barnabas, oh Barnabas. Why did you vomit on Daddy? Haiyo… all your kuey teow semi-digested with the smell of your stomach acid. All of it you vomited on Daddy’s shirt and jeans. And we have to bear all of it for 10 minutes while Mummy drove us home. You know what oh Barnabas.

n spite of all that smell and “geli-ness”, there is that feeling of love and care towards you. Daddy knows that you are not feeling well and Daddy is very sure that you are feeling at that time is worse that the smell and “geli-ness” that Daddy had to suffer. It has been some time since the last time somebody vomited on Daddy.

Hmmm… Daddy can’t even remember the last incident. The vomit gives Daddy the feeling of being a Daddy again, loving you despite all the “trials” you gave. Daddy loves you Barnabas.

Barnabas is showing signs of being the adventurous boy. He does not like to stay inside the house. Whenever possible he would want to go out and play outside the house. He would explore the compound and play at the swing.

When his grandmother is outside, he would call out to her and want to be with her. His grandmother (as many grandmother would do) would carry him and they would spend the time together outside the house. His grandmother would be peeling the coconut leaves to make the broom and he would just play around there. He would explore the compound, picking up things, running here and there. When he grows up, I will need to teach him many outdoor skills like camping, climbing trees, hiking and also maybe martial art skills.

It is nice to see the different personalities that God has given to my children. Yes, each one of them is unique and special. Even in the matter of eating preferences all my three children have different preferences.

Annabelle is more of the carnivor, loves to eat chicken meat. Clarissa however loves to eat rice only, not so much of meat. Barnabas, on the other hand loves to eat vegetables.

Another one thing I noticed about Annabelle is that she needs to be shown affection. Many times when I was around doing my things, she would just come and want to sit on my lap or lie down on my lap. She knows that I would cuddle her and embrace her and she would just enjoy it. The look at her face shows that she wants her daddy’s love. And it is a joy just to shower her with affections. Once she has received the affection she needs she would go back to do her own things.

Annabelle has been a blessing to me since her birth. Yes, the other children too have been a blessing. Since Annabelle is the eldest, I first learned about parenting since her arrival. There are many trials and challenges being a new father but it has been rewarding. I enjoyed teaching Annabelle her new skills. She has been a cautious girl and still is. She is not so daring to try out new things but once she is encouraged by others she would give it a try. The easiest way to persuade her to do things is by words of encouragement or by words of challenge.

Last Sunday we went to church. During the altar call, Pastor Lee Neo asked the congregation to hold other people’s hand for corporate prayer. Clarissa was with her mother at the mother’s room at the back of the sanctuary. After the prayer, her mother told me that Clarissa cried when she saw me holding a lady’s hand during the prayer. Hahaha…so cute to hear that.

Then when I asked her why she is jealous and cry, she said, “I want daddy”. Wah…so strong her feelings for her daddy that holding hands in prayer is also not permissible.

My daughter Clarissa seems to be attached to me. Everytime I want to hug my wife and if Clarissa sees us, she would cry. At first I thought that Clarissa does not want me to hug her mommy. After a few times, we realized that she actually do not want her mommy to hug me. Hahaha. Clarissa would cry and then ask me to hug her. After I hugged her she would stop crying. She wants me, her daddy is hers, not even her mommy can hug her daddy. Haizzzz…

Annabelle small finger got bitten by an insect just now. We already asked her to sleep as it is already past her bedtime. She opened the room door and told me and her mommy that her finger is pain pain. Thinking that she is just trying to go out from the room and play, I told her to go back to sleep. After about 5 minutes she opened the room door again and said the same thing. Scolded her and asked her to go back to sleep again. About a minute later we heard her crying in the room.

Went in and while still crying she showed me her finger. I was afraid that she might have twisted her finger but thank God it was not the case. Brought her out from the room and applied some ointment on her finger. Immediately she quietened down. She also asked me to pray for her finger. In the room she seems so happy. I guess she wants attention from her parents more than the ointment. Now she is asleep.

The time has come for me to use the cane on Barnabas. No, not that I will simply cane him for my own enjoyment. No father will simply cane the son for fun. Only evil father do that.

Barnabas is almost 2 years old already. He understands a lot of things though he does not talk much. He learns and starts to imitate other people especially from his sisters. All the while the cane has not been used on him but he realised that being caned is not a good thing. He would be quiet when the sisters are being caned. But he also noticed that he can get away with doing “naughty” things without being caned. So the time has come for him to learn good habits and not to do naughty things. The cane will be his unconscious teacher, directing his thoughts and mind to behave properly.

Woke up this morning and as I turned around, I saw my two girls still sleeping in the room. Haiya…. looks like they can’t wake up this morning and Mommy decided to let them sleep and skip school. The night before both of them slept late. Annabelle slept at 1am. Haiya…cannot like this every day lah. Now, they are disturbing me.