An Ordinary Saturday
Every night, at the same part of Katy’s bedtime routine, she asks if we can have a minute. This is her way of asking for some free-form time between her Bible story and her bedtime prayer. Usually she talks about…
2017: The Rubbish Year That Was
I didn’t want to look back on 2017 because it hurt too much. Trying to reflect on the past year is a lot like poking at the edges of a wound that’s begun to scab over but isn’t healing well: every time I pick at…
Bittersweet moments
I was trying to capture an outfit shot of Katy when she noticed a leaf by her right foot. She stepped on it, dragged it underfoot up against the wall, and raised her foot till leaf met hand and she…
Motherhood: Keeping It Real
This Mother’s Day, I’m keeping it real. No matter if you have a robust support network or none at all, no matter if your workplace is family-friendly or would rather its employees work as though they don’t have personal lives…
Our First Serious Conversation
Lately, Katy has started lolling in front of the full-length mirror outside my bathroom when she’s meant to go brush her teeth. Today she piped up while looking at her reflection: “Who gave me my birthmark?” I told her the usual…
How Grinches Are Made
It begins in December. Of course it does. By being born in the same month as Christmas, you are guaranteed a childhood of receiving half the anticipated quantity of presents. With a child’s sense of right and wrong, you protest the…
“You have a child, you know”
There is a woman in her 50s whom I see at an exercise class every week. I don’t know her well. We just work out together. She sometimes asks me random questions as we’re leaving class, and this week in…
Shopping for Toddler (and Mom) Stuff: AgapeBabies.com
Some say that you buy less stuff for your baby as he/she grows older. Some disagree, in that a growing toddler needs far fewer specialised items than babies do for feeding, cleaning etc. I for one maintain an uneasy tension between the…
My Irrational Zika Panic
Zika first appeared on my radar as a South American virus that was scaring athletes away from Rio 2016. I was entirely unprepared for the speed at which it arrived on Singapore shores, but I didn’t think too hard about…
How to Talk So Katy Will Listen
As a communicator by trade, I tend to assume that I’m competent at getting my point across to people in a meaningful and engaging manner. The humbling reality of parenthood, however, is that everything I think I know about communication adds up to a big fat nothing…
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