My Out-of-Office's message during Mathieson and Wife's Confinement

Thank you for your email.

I am away on confinement duties to be with my wife, who had safely delivered my my second child and only son on 16 May 2012.

During my time away from the office, I will be swopping business proposals, design, solutions and deployment documents to perfoming online searches with keywords such as "changing diapers for baby boys" and "preparing and helping my toddler for the arrival of a new baby brother".

A far cry from my OoF in 2009 when the arrival of my first born and daughter. Then, I was trading my online searches for Microsoft Whitepapers and KBs to Operational Manual for Newborn babies. This time round, I feel a need to acquire new and different skills. I may also need to un-learn a very useful skill which I have honed over the past 2 years, i.e. sleeping throughout the night while my daughter's crying. Then again, it depends.

Meanwhle, if you have tips on dealing with the birth of a second child, feel free to send them to me.

I will return to work on 18 June 2012, Monday.

During this time, I may have limited access to my email. Please expect delays in my response.

Thank you and best regards,

Johnson

Chloe's first day in school

Chloe reached another major milestone in her adolescent years. Today, she starts school. Tomorrow, she will go through the separation. I hope she does not exhibit much separation anxiety.

1) Chloe did not make a fuss when we told her to change from her PJ to her school uniform.

2) Her new school mate mistakenly called her "kor kor" (dialect for elder brother). Chloe have the shortest hairstyle in class. That made her looked like a boy and easily misunderstood.

3) Chloe is the tallest child in her class and she is not even the oldest.

4) Daddy: "If you want to go to the toilet, you must wear one of these slippers (some imitation croc shoes in ugly colours lined up along the wall leading into the toilets) so you won't get your socks wet or dirty."

Chloe: No! I have my own pink one. (Refering to her pink Croc shoes)

5) When the teachers told all the kids to line up to go to the playground, Chloe discovered that daddy had overstepped the boundary line and shouted "Daddy! Come back!" (Daddy was hiding behind a bush to take a picture of Chloe)

6) Chloe tried Mee Soto (also known as noodles in chicken soup) for the first time. Tomorrow, she will be having chicken rice.

7) The teachers asked all the children to line up behind one another and put their hands on the shoulders of the children in front. When a class mate tried to put both her hands on Chloe's shoulders from behind, Chloe shrugged them off with a couple of strong shoulder shrugs.

8) Chloe's teachers are Noa, who teaches in English, and Wang Jing, who teaches in Madarin.

9) At the end of class, Daddy asked Chloe if she enjoyed school. Chloe replied, "Yes! I like school!"