The first year we were here (before kid), i had gather some church friends and done a fairly big do… after kid, we toned it down and saved the big do for the son. So these days it is normally a quiet celebration at home, where i cook (or i try to) one or two of his favourite dishes and bake a cake and we sing happy birthday – just the 3 of us 🙂
This year, i decided to do a mostly meat meal (he likes his meat) and Tobias decided that we should do cupcakes this year instead of a regular cake. The cupcakes were decorated with mini Smarties to spell… …have a look. Can you make out what they spell?
The Birthday Cake 2012Ready to blow out the candlesReading the Giant Card
Well, if you said, Happy Birthday Daddy, you would be right. If not, go get your eyes checked! i can recommend a great optician. hehhehehhee… kidding…
Tobias also made a card, or should i say a Giant Card, which is really a big sheet of paper with drawings of his and the words, “Happy Birthday Daddy. Love Tobias. I love you.”.
Daddy also got a funky cool watch as a present.
(i forgot to take a photo of it so here’s a link to an online shop which sells it.)
Happy Birthday My Dear! Life would definitely be less interesting without you in it. Thank you for choosing to spend the rest of your birthdays with me and son. Luv ya lots.
My Daddy with my son, at the Singapore Zoo, August 2011
It is also my personal Thank You to my Daddy for being my Daddy and being the most wonderful Daddy any girl could ever hope to have – Thank You Daddy! I Love You!
Now i’ll leave you to read all 50 Rules – i just want to highlight a few (15 actually 😉 )which have touched my heart and which bring tears prickling in my eyes when i think of them and my Daddy…
1. Love her mom.
My Daddy loves my Mummy soooo much… i know it. He always picks her up and takes her wherever she wants to go. He always makes a nice hot cup of tea for her before bedtime. He always told us we need to respect her and listen to her. He always makes sure she is as comfortable as possible… My Daddy loves my Mummy and my Mummy loves my Daddy…
2. Always be there.
My Daddy is always there for me. Always. Period. Thank you Daddy.
3. Save the day.
My Daddy is my Hero! You know how little kids always think their parents know everything… while my Daddy knows everything there is to know about life and the important stuff about it… i always turned to him whenever i have problems with projects from school and he always has the answer or he would find me the answer.
6. Buy her a glove and teach her to throw a baseball.
We don’t play baseball where we come from. But my Daddy taught me about planes and cars and climbing trees. i used to be able to identify planes from the sounds they make when they flew over, i watched weserling with him (althought i don’t enjoy it now), he taught me to race remote-control cars and how to fight back when bullied.
13. Make pancakes in the shape of her age for breakfast on her birthday.
My Daddy made breakfast as often as he could for us, which was usually Sundays… fried eggs with bacon – yummy!
15. Dance with her.
My Daddy taught me to dance. He’s quite a dancer himself 😉 i danced on his feet so much… and loved it… still do but i’m afraid i’m a little too big for that now…
18. Tell her she’s beautiful.
My Daddy always said, “If you have it, flaunt it.” 😉 It was his way of saying i have it and i should show the world i have it.
20. Take her camping.
i don’t remember too much but my Mummy tells me we went camping on the beach. We traveled with my Daddy a bit when i was little and he traveled for work. The well-heeled story is the one of me waddling into the ocean early in the morning without adult supervision which freaked my Mummy out 😉
21. Let her hold the wheel.
i love to drive because of my Daddy. He loves to drive. He always told me exactly where we were going and which roads we were on. This gave me a good sense of direction from an early age.
22. She’s as smart as any boy.
My Daddy never said that exactly but he always let me know that he believed in me.
25. Letting her ride on your shoulders is pure magic.
i absolutely LOVED those moments! i don’t remember exact details but i remember being up on those big strong shoulders and loving it.
30. Never miss her birthday.
He was always there.
35. She’ll probably want to crawl in bed with you after a nightmare.
Actually, i was a fairly scaredy cat when i was little and slept with my parents for the longest time. My poor Daddy was often kicked and punched as i was a bad sleeper then… but he fixed it (didn’t i say my Daddy has all the answers? 😉 ). He built me a high narrow bed to train me to sleep still. My husband has to thank my Daddy for this one 😀
39. Holding her upside down by the legs while she giggles and screams uncontrollably is great for your biceps.
i remember this too… details are fuzzy but i’m sure my Daddy did this a fair bit.
45. Learn to trust her.
For this, i am most grateful. My Daddy knew when i was ready and let me go. Thank you Daddy. i am who i am and where i am and i am happy because of you and what you have done. Thank You. Words are not enough.
But seriously, being a Stay-At-Home-Mum (SAHM) or a Homemaker or a Home Manager isn’t a walk in the park, it isn’t all coffee and chit-chat. Like i said to a friend recently, there are things which will not get done or will not be done as well if i were not a SAHM (actually i prefer the title of Home Manager ;)).
i closed my home business almost 10 months ago and since then i have been wondering to myself, how on earth did i get everything done before and still run a business which involved a fair amount of travel? Of course, there were weeks when i would have to leave the cleaning till next week or hire extra help to look after my little boy so that i could run my business. Now that i don’t have the business to mind, i’m still finding that my time seems limited, there even seems to be more to do! How is that possible? i’m don’t know – i’m still trying to find out.
Let’s look at what i do during a typical week (just talking Monday to Friday):
i do roughly 8 hours of cleaning the house and the laundry for the week. Cooking takes up maybe 10 hours a week (just counting 5 days per week). i do German classes and Bible Study so that’s about 9 hours including travel time and homework time. Then there is helping kid with homework which adds up to about 1.5 hours a week (he’s only in 1st grade). We also have to count the time we care for kid in other ways, reading to him, playing with him, teaching him other skills like cooking/making models etc, making him snacks, taking him to his different activities – that’s takes up most of the rest of the week. So if you count the hours for that, roughly adds up to 37 hours of childcare.
So in a typical 5 day week, a Home Manager works roughly 65.5 hours. This is not counting midnight wake-ups for various things from nightmares to needing water to putting in extra nightlight. Then there is also the weekend in which a Home Manager works too… although ideally the workload is supposed to be split by half (doesn’t always happen that way).
A Home Manager also doesn’t get vacation time. In fact if you look at it factually, a Home Manager actually takes her/his work on vacation 😉 Oh and there is most definitely no such thing as being on sick leave… there is work to be done even if you are ill, especially so if you have a spouse who travels lots for work.
Doing it all for them & getting paid in love, hugs & kisses 😉
Now all this is not to complain that i dislike being a Home Manager or Homemaker or SAHM – i like being all that. i’m just happy to know that someone has put a monetary value on what i do as a Home Manager 😀 Right now, my “salary” are love, hugz and kisses 😉
trippingdifferently 