Happy Father’s Day In “Confinement”

“Father” is a big word. There are people who “father” children, yet have no further reason to really call themselves such. Then there are those who have no biological ties with their “children” whatsoever, and yet have played such vital roles in their lives. Nurturer. Role model. Sometime confidant. Us mothers have fathers too!

So here’s to the fathers, without whom we’d all be in rehab. Or jail. Probably therapy.

Yes, yes, I got the mini-me outfits ages ago, but I was quite bummed not to be able to go out to a kiddie craft store or otherwise do more shopping for Kings closer to de day (yeah I get gifts super-early and whenever I come across them, rather than on occasion – what if there’s nothing goodsie when the time comes? Kings had been near unravelling earlier on, trying to handle my regular taking care of Rockstar day-to-day, get our home baby-ready, AND set up a big project he’d been working hard on for some time so I wanted to do something nice for him… Except I’m obviously still in “confinement”… Tho I probably don’t follow it really strictly…)

Rockstar wanted to do the whole thing himself with minimal help but in the end I still outlined the words and pics he drew in blue marker (don't even have a black marker in the house!) because otherwise it was really hard to see anything... At some point Baby Rockstar joined us for a feed while her bro was working on this...

Opportunity came in the form of my having to have my bandages removed at my gynea’s last Monday – it’s near Harvey Nichols in Landmark. Kings must’ve wondered why I was so fine with him rushing right off after the doc’s appt (I was less fine about him being horribly late for the appt) but I wanted him to buzz off chop-chop so I could make a last ditch effort looking for a Father’s Day gift. Can’t believe I went hobbling about (there’s this slow “walk” new mums do just after delivery – and if you have a c section then you’re probably doing it for a bit longer – that I hate and call the Frankenstein Walk. Along hospital corridors in bedraggled hair and jammies (well I was in old yoga wear from Victoria’s Secret – and I don’t. Even. Yoga!), the name fits even more) determinedly around the men’s department after my gynea appointment. And yes I still wash my hair every darn day, though the nanny insists I use this boiled ginger water tea.

I’d been covertly surfing Father’s Day kid’s craft sites while expressing breast milk, and liked the idea of an I Love You Daddy card to carry around in a wallet – except I figured to get the wallet as well 🙂 Kings goes thru loads of wallets. Don’t know what he does with them, but they get seriously trashed – his credit cards inside get bent out of shape and well the entire wallet looks like a piece of “Kiam  Chye” (salted veggie) so he has to change f-airly often. Even my mum has given him a wallet before.

Anyway this Givenchy wallet was my first choice, except I didn’t think the braiding would survive very long. The Harvey Nichols sales guy actually took me, still Frankenstein Walking, to check out wallets at 3 or 4 counters and when I tell him Kings is really rough on them recommends a Lagerfeld one.

I’m actually so-so about the design (it’s a little shiny-textured with a small silver “Lagerfeld” plaque on the front) but wanted the slimmest one with a “display window” so we could put a card/note in. And the guy said it was probably the toughest one in the store. Sold.

Rockstar writing his "Secret Message" (he's 4, what do you want from me?)

Not So Secret Message (Sorry Mr Lagerfeld)

And there was room for one more... And he can still have pics of the kids here...

PS: “If you have love, you have all,” in short Shakespearean English on an inexpensive silver ring (think it was like, SGD 70-something, tops) I got from Metropolitan Museum Of Art almost a decade ago when we first dated is what Kings still wears as a wedding ring. (I don’t even have a wedding ring – we somehow never got round to getting em – so I just wear my engagement ring, a “dummy” ring he initially proposed with, and a WWJD ring. I don’t wear a cross as often because I couldn’t see it round my neck. But typing on a keyboard using the Bloomberg or whatever, I would see my hands often and remember.)

Have Love And All is a constant reminder of where he and “we” started – literally with nothing but huge study loans to pay off (fine, I studied at Nanyang Tech U in Singapore and accepted the government tuition grant (and 3yr bond to work in Sing) back then so not much debt for me, but you know how when you’re just a couple years in the market and always broke)…..

PPS: The only gifts that interest my own dad are often techie, so as always for special occasions I tell him to pick out some gadget online that we would get for him from Wan Chai Computer Center when he next got here… Why Fedex gifts about that he doesn’t really want… Not to mention now he can go surfing the net for longer to research stuff… Shopping experience is a gift too…

PPPS: Think I’ve been totally “together” with a new baby in the apartment? I had Rockstar put up the Father’s Day stuff last Tuesday. Have NO idea what made me think that was Father’s Day….