First X'mas with baby Ryan

It is my first X'mas celebration with Baby Ryan.
Feels so different that now I'm a father of a son.

Will be on annual leave till 2nd Jan 2013.

Gotta spend more time with dear and boy boy before going back to the rat race life.

It brings me back to the sad reality that both me and lishan will be spending significantly less time with Ryan once dear's maternity leave/annual leave runs out and she returns to work.

An average Singaporean couple will most probably be dual-income, that is, both dad and mom are working. So who's gonna take care of the baby while dad and mom are working?

1) Grandparents

2) Infant/ Child care

3) Nanny

Sad to say that most parents will not be able to spend more time with their babies during their waking hours. The kid's closest/ most familiar person will be the caregiver, whom is usually not either of the parents.

I will always wonder if the trade-off of dual income is always better than the parent not being the primary care giver.

Yes I know, we all have a choice.

But taking into consideration of the risk of relying on a single income (not counting passive income), especially when there is always a risk of retrenchment (not that I have not been through that before), common sense dictates that dual income will be a safer bet for making sure of our own survivability in this pragmatic society.

Ahhhh, why am I thinking of such stuff at this hour?

Perhaps procrastination becomes extra pronounced at night (I was drafting a work email... yes yes, still working when I'm on leave, yes yes money to be made)

Incoherent thoughts at this hour.

Gotta go sleep now and wake up at 7 to do my brick training

Anyway, Merry X'mas to whomever is reading this.

On leave or not??

Supposed to be on Childcare leave and annual leave, all the way till 2013.
Still have to work at this hour......

Typical Chinese...
有钱还是要赚
奶粉钱难赚

Anyway, signed up for the MegaTri Olympic Distance race on 20 Jan.
I'm supposed to follow my planned training schedule, at least while I'm on leave.

Missed today's session.
Gotta make sure I make up tomorrow.

Eventful day...

The Good
Ryan finally managed to flip from lying his back to lying on his tummy all by himself this morning!
So happy to see him learn new skills.
I'm proud of my son!

Though now it becomes a slight problem, that he keeps trying to flip every time he lies on his back. Even during diaper changing time.
Now he even fall asleep in a half flip position.
Maybe he will make a good athlete with such dedication to training :)

Next I'll have to try to teach him to roll back to lie on his back from the tummy position.
Then teach him how to sit up without assistance.

Loving my boy more and more each day!


Very Very Close shave - Falling down with my baby
It all happened in a flash.

Was walking up a flight of steps while carrying sleeping Ryan in front of me, and my slipper caught the last step and threw me off balance, falling forward with Ryan in my arms.

The first natural reaction was to break fall by putting my hands out.
But I immediately saw Ryan flying out of my arms.

Daddy instinct kicked in and I did a double pull in mid air to pull Ryan back into my arms.
Managed to twist around and cushion Ryan on my chest before we hit the ground.

Ryan got startled and cried immediately, but we were very very lucky that he wasn't hurt.
I think I probably rolled on Ryan's left foot a little bit when I hit the floor but there wasn't any damage as well.

I just got a small scrape on my knee and elbow.

Feeling damned guilty after the incident, so this small bruise is probably a punitive punishment for my negligence.

Conclusion:

1. I SWEAR OFF WEARING THE GOD DAMNED SLIPPERS AGAIN IF I'M GOING TO CARRY RYAN. Only secure sandals or shoes will do.
2. Be EXTRA EXTRA careful when carrying baby Ryan.
3. Thanks to the 4-faced Brahma at Erawan Shrine for protecting Ryan. I promise I will offer prayers every time I visit Thailand, without fail.
4. Similar to the last time I saved my own skin from the fall off the scooter in Taiwan, cultivated lightning response from sports has probably saved Ryan from any hurt this time. Daddy now has the responsibility to keep himself fit to be able to protect baby Ryan under any circumstances.

Post SCMS

Did my 10th installation of the SC marathon last Sunday, clocked a relatively ok timing at 4:53
Got some new insights and breakthrough though this isn't my best possible timing.

Original Objectives set out:
1) Test the High cadence short stride
2) Continuous run with little/no stops
3) Finish Strong with no injuries
4) Clock sub-5

Good:
1) Finished the run strong. I had always stumbled through the last 10km for the last 9 installations. This is the first time that I did not get any immediate cramps after passing the finish line, and still feeling that I have some gas left in my tank.
2) Continuous running with little stopping except for Water station with less than 10s downtime, and the Sheares bridge where it was not worth it to attack the slopes and risk serious cramps which will screw up the remaining 4km run. Better to err on the safe side.
3) Finally managed to break through the much-feared "Wall" at 32km. When I reached 30km at 3:20 feeling fatigued, I was starting to worry if the new strategy is going to back fire on me. The usual cramps indeed started to set in at 32km again. But I persisted with the high-short and actually managed to make the cramps "disappear" after the initial struggle.
4) Minimized damage to knees and reasonable soreness on the calves and quads. (can walk around with ease, up and down the stairs without much issues. No limping or awkwardness)

Bad:
1) Abrasions - It wasn't my thighs brushing against each other, but rather the sweat-soaked wet running shorts causing abrasion on my left thigh.
2) Abrasions - trim body hair at spots where movement is expected. Nuff said
3) Abrasions - nipple bled this time. Felt some abrasion at around 25km, but nothing afterwards. Realized the bleeding after 36km but no feeling at all. Post-run till date still no signs of pain. Not sure if I became super man and gained immunity to pain...

Conclusion:
High-cadence short-stride is definitely working, though I might had been overly cautious in this run not to over extend myself in case I couldn't beat the Wall.
Since I was able to clock 3hr flat for the last 31.5km run with High-short, I believe this could probably help me to clock 4.30 for a 42km run with proper prep

Actions:
1) Wear the 2xu full length tights for long runs next time to minimize abrasions. Will probably help with recovery as well.
2) Extend the High-short strategy. Clock up to 35km when training for future marathons. This shouldn't be an issue anymore since this has helped to reduce injuries and downtime.
3) Adapt the High-short for IPPT 2.4km run to regain my $400 incentive again.

Next Up:
I'll most probably sign up for the Olympic Distance Tri Race on 20 Jan.
The experience gained from this run is going to help me avoid the quad cramps on the run leg of the tri.