Having dinner with my family over skype! How cool is that!:) I miss my family so much!:) Wish I was physically there with them, looks really fun!

Yes that’s right! Daddies got to be the next best living creature, after mum. That’s because we spent 9 extra months with mum in a much more intimate way. Alright, who am I kidding! I believe parents are the most awesome people in the world and both of them are vital in a child’s life. Use their physical bodies for example: while mum bodies are specifically made to carry baby for 9 months in their womb and be able to breastfeed later, dad’s strong stable structure is able to carry kids on their shoulders, allow kids to sit on their backs for horse riding and so forth. Society really use to undermine the role of a father to just being a breadwinner of the family, but since the uprise of daddy bloggers and stay home dads, I think that’s changing, which is fantastic!

Since today is Asia’s fathers’ day, I strongly believe that my Dad deserves a shoutout, because my last blog entry about him was in 2008, seriously, see how we always take dads for granted. What I love about MY DAD:

1. He’s got to be the funniest person in my world. Although his jokes are all-so-lame, but his excitement and the way he tells the jokes is really amusing. He laughs at his own jokes as if he was the funniest man on earth, and that in itself is really funny, not the joke.

2. He’s one of my biggest source of comfort and encouragement. My dad doesn’t really say much, but when he does, you know that there is always someone backing you up. Just a simple “it’s ok Rachel”, brings such comfort beyond words. Sometimes people can be quick to blame others, my dad is nothing of that sort.

3. He tries his best to fulfil all of my ridiculous demands. Take last summer for example, he was only back in Singapore for like 2 weeks, and he spent a fair bit of it trying to get me an Iphone4 just because I wanted it. It was quite a hassle because we were trying to get it at his company corporate price so that it’s much cheaper. Despite all the trouble, he got it for me and surprised me when he got home.

4. We are TV buddies! My dad and I are couch potatoes, we can sit in front of the TV and watch it all day. He is much happier when I am older, because the shows we watch now are pretty similar. And it’s funny Singapore cable TV tends to shows movies over and over again, and both of us can watch the same movies many times and still laugh at the funny part. Oh yes, and we also like to laugh at mum who always doesn’t really make it past 10 minutes of the movie and ends up falling asleep.

5. He is the most patient person ever! Every time mum and I go shopping, I have never once heard my dad complain about the fact that he has to wait for us and carry out shopping bags. And if there’s too much for him to carry, he would say “I will go put this in the car first, I will call you to ask you where you are later.” Well… now with technology, he can play with his Iphone while waiting for us too.

6. He is such a behind-the-scenes man, he does all this little things for you and never really expects much recognition or acknowledgement. Such a humble heart, that’s something I am still learning from him everyday.

7. He lets me dress him up and shop for him with HIS money. My dad is in his 60s, he has three grandkids, I am still wanna make him look cool! At the same time, you don’t wanna to over do it, the plan might backfire.

8. When he says “no”, he means it. When I was in my teenage years, dad was my secret weapon. If mum says no, then I will go to dad. Sometimes he would let me have it and sometimes he will say “no” and I will get angry and throw my retarded teenage fit. But looking back, I am glad he said no to my unreasonable demands. He always has a father’s heart that wants the best for me.

9. He’s a family man. It’s hard for many dads because they work, work can become their first priority, but my dad always put God first, then family and then work.

10. He loves me just the way I am. The scary things about having much older siblings, they have been through a lot, parents might have the tendency to expect things from the youngest to be as good as the older ones or fulfil the things they didn’t. Thankfully, my parents, love me the way I am, I am special in my own way and I don’t have to become like my older siblings. No comparison happens in this family!

Looking at my immediate family, the three dads (My dad, my brother, my bro-in-law) in the family has made me set very high expectations for my future husband. I quote Mother, Inc “Ask any woman and they’ll tell you that there’s nothing more smokin’ hot than a man who adores his kids and is adored right back by them.” I agree with that:) So yes dad, you are smokin’ hot!

Happy Fathers’ Day to daddy, kor and James:) And happy birthday to you too kor! Double celebration!

Feliz Dia ads Mães!!! Thanks to google translate, I can wish you Happy Mother’s Day in Portuguese! Mummy, thanks for being such an affectionate mum! As a little girl, I love cuddling up to you to hear you say you love me or to tell me well done when I did something great. But you know what mum, as much as I love hearing these affectionate and affirming words from you as a kid, big girls like me need to hear them so much more.

To know that you are proud of the woman I have become today, the path that I have chosen and the kind of life I want to live means a million times more than all those times when you read me a bedtime story before I sleep, tried to pat me to sleep but most of the time you fall asleep first, when we cuddle up on the bed or sofa to talk about boys and other stuff and when you accompany me to do my homework while you read the newspaper.

As I grow older, I realised that being a mum is really not an easy job and I respect you for raising three great children. Yes, I am indirectly praising myself, just kidding! Or rather raising the first two children well enough for me to have good examples to follow in life. Remembering all the times that I have said things that have hurt you, slapped the door at you, talked back and made stupid choices just to defy you, come to think of it, I was one spoilt brat, yet you still love me the same just amazes me of how great a mother’s love is.

You know what mum… I don’t know if all the thank you(s) in the world is enough to thank you for being my mum and I thought long and hard of what would be the best present in the world to give to you. I am not sure if this is good enough, but I reckon the best present in the world to you would be to continue your legacy, to be the same kind of mum you were to me to my own children in the future or maybe even strive to be better. What do you reckon mum? Is this a good present?

No mum is perfect in this world, but to me, you’ll always be the perfect mum. I love you.

Love Rachel.