Jay’s been sick this last week, and still is. He had last Thursday and Friday off, and it’s now Monday, and he’s off from school again. It’s not anything that out of the ordinary, just a regular cold, but it’s a difficult time for him, and as a result, for the rest of us. Wednesday […]

My son, Jay, came home from school on Friday a little disappointed. “I got basketball” he told me, with a hint of sadness in his eyes. It wasn’t what he was hoping for, but after a bit of a chat, he decided it was, not just okay, but a potentially good thing. You see, here

It’s Julie’s first day of grade 5 and her parents are excited and decide to tell everyone they know by taking a photo and sharing it with friends and family on facebook. There she is in her school uniform and her parents leave the comment “First day of grade 6 for our princess at Whatchamacallit

This past weekend was the Chinese New Year, and like most years we headed back to Indonesia to celebrate with my wife’s family. This is something that we try to do every year, since it’s an important time for SO and her family. For those who don’t know, SO is Indonesian, born and raised there,

There’s nothing worse than leaving something till the last minute, and for Jay, my son, he invariably leaves his homework until he’s run out of time. No matter how much we remind him, or tell him to do it, he always puts it off until he has no choice. So what can be done about

Recently Jay went back to school, on the 2nd of January, to start grade 3. For those not in the know, the school year starts in January here in Singapore. Which means that the long summer holidays, although it’s always summer here, are in November and December. As a side note, Singapore has two seasons,

I think this is a question most parents will end up asking themselves at one point or another. When should we put a limit on our children’s creativity? And has it been destructive enough to require punishment? Maybe a little background is in order. A few years ago Jay got angry at SO and basically

Because of work and other life commitments, we decided to stay in Singapore this year for Christmas. This made it Jay’s third Christmas that he didn’t spend in Australia. This was a big deal, because it means it’s just the 3 of us spending the day together. Although this year, one of his cousins from

Since we got married, SO and I had only had a couple of Christmases in Australia. But after Jay came along, we decided to try to go there as much as possible. This year is only the third time that we haven’t gone back since he was born. The first time I’ve already written about.

Since it’s almost Christmas, I’ve been thinking of the past and specifically of Jay’s first Christmas. Since he was born in the first half of November, he was only around 6 weeks old when Christmas arrived that year. Also, since he was adopted, we had spent most of that time finalising the adoption and organising