Day 224 or “T-1”
This is it. The last day of single(ish) fatherhood. I would be lying if I didn’t admit to having mixed feelings about it. I am going to look back on this time as the best 225 days of my life. As everyone who’s been reading this journal knows, it’s not been easy. But it’s been worthwhile. It’s been meaningful. It’s been … fantastic.
We start this final day with a sleep in. 9 blissful hours of uninterrupted sleep. Of course, why couldn’t we have been doing this for the last 9 months, I’ll never know? Stormy has crept into my bed at some point during the night. She wakes me peacefully at about 8:30 asking if she can make her own breakfast this morning. She’s becoming more independent every day. After a quiet breakfast of toast (that she made) in front of cartoons, we scoot off to Sportsball.
Even though we don’t technically leave Singapore for another 12 days, this will be her last Sportsball. She’s been doing this for almost 3 years, and has really loved it. She especially loves her coach — Coach Gao. He has an amazing rapport with her (and the other children in her class). Stormy is going to miss him. At the end of the class Coach Gao presents her with a medal. We try to take a photo of them together but Stormy refuses to look directly at the camera. It is a bittersweet moment. I’m sure the first of many over the next week.
We run straight from Sportsball to the birthday party of one of her classmates. We’re a little late and Stormy makes up for it by turning on hyperactive mode. She runs around, plays, and dances. Basically, everything that a 5-year should do at a party. I will admit to being slightly terrified when she picks up the stick for the piñata. She goes to town on that thing. At the end of the party, the good-byes are serious. While she’ll see some of these friends at school on Monday during the holiday programme. For many, this is the last time they’ll see each other.
We scoot home after the party. Stormy rests on the sofa while I start to clear out some of the cupboards in preparation for the removalists coming later in the week. After a short while Stormy comes to help. Her help involves asking to keep everything that I remove from the cupboard intending to give away, throw away or sell. I make a small pile of things that “we can keep” but that will inexplicably disappear tomorrow.
Then comes the event that Stormy has been waiting all week for. My work BBQ. My daughter loves meeting my colleagues and they’re all coming over to our condo for dinner. She starts the evening a little shy, but as my friends and colleagues trickle in she becomes a lot (lot) livelier. And as my friends with children of their own arrive, she starts to really thrive. From pretending to be a cat (and I mean literally walking around on all fours and meowing the answer to every question) to running around with her new friends & showing them around the condo (out of sight of all the parents) to jumping in the pool with all her clothes on. She is both a bad example and a bundle of energy. And everyone loves her.
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