(Grand)daddy's Girl

In the case of Shiya, it is so far from truth that she is Daddy's girl. She is more like Granddad's girl. Sometimes I find it so hard to believe how much Fred's dad dote on her.

You know, whenever we are out for shopping, this 60 yr old man can carry Shiya without feeling tired, or complaint throughout the day? Fred and I could hardly carry her for more than ten mins. She is now a 13 kg big girl now, you know. We always tell him to let her sit on the stroller, but he is reluctant... saying that she does not like stroller. It is anyone's wonder why she doesn't like stroller, since her YeYe loves to carry her all the time. In so doing, Shiya now expects us to carry her all the time, even when YeYe is not around.

Whenever she starts to whine or cry, her dear grandpa would come running to her, to comfort and entertain her with silly songs and antics. So to her, he is like the knight in shining armour.If she were to do the same thing in front of me and Fred, or even her grandma, we would pay little attention to her if we know it is just her usual fussing. So, when it comes to us, she would usually whine a little but shuts up very quickly after she sees it has no effects on us at all.

Shiya likes to play with umbrella. Whenever it rains, she would open up all the umbrellas at her granny's home. Then she would pull her YeYe to sit under the umbrella together right in the middle of the living room. It is so funny to see both of them squeezing under the umbrella.

Her YeYe, is the one who would tirelessly play with her all day long. They could be either singing, dancing, playing house, play catch and all kinds of games you could think of. Sometimes, my mother-in-law says, they can play until very "siao".

During weekdays, her granddad and granny would bring her out to different shopping centres everyday like Vivocity, Compass Point, Plaza Singapura... and so on, you name it. This girl has gone to almost all, thanks to the extensive "excursion programmes" conducted by her grandparents.

When she was around a few months old, I was told by her granny that Fred's dad would take her out on train ride on the whole LRT of Sengkang just for her to be exposed to the experience. Honestly I dun think me and Fred would ever bother to do that even if we have the time in the whole world.

Everytime before we send her to her grandparent's home, her dear doting granddad, we were told, would start mopping and cleaning the whole house with Dettol. And that's not all. He would also wash and wipe all her toys. Can you believe it? I hardly even wash her toys once a month.

Shiya knows jolly well how much her granddad loves her, that is why she always "bully" him. She would throw very bad tantrums, whine and cry until very "cham" to get her way. She knows that YeYe is the only one she can do these to get what she wanted. Sometimes, to our horror, we saw her beating YeYe's hands when she was throwing tantrums. To me, this is not funny at all. I would get very stern and discipline her rightaway.I dun want her to grow up a spoilt brat.

While I am touched by the kind of love he is showering on her, I am rather worried that he would spoil her. All of us keep telling him not to pamper her so much, but he would always defend her saying "Aiya... she is still a baby what. Needs a lot attention." I guess even by the time Shiya turns 14 yrs old, he would still thinks she is a baby. haha...

Lucky for us, her Granny is more of a disciplinarian. If she dotes on her the way her YeYe does, then I think me and Fred will have a lot to worry about. Without a doubt, she would grow up a very spoilt brat, given that me and Fred has so little time to exert influence on moulding her character.

We hope that the arrival of my brother-in-law's baby would lessen my father-in-law's splurge on her. I bet she would be very jealous and even more clingy to her grandpa when the new one comes along.

We shall see.