Tim and Olive's Blog

Our grandfather Yee-Noon Chan passed away last night. This is our tribute to him – first Olive’s, then mine. Last night, for a brief moment, a baby’s laughter filled the room where a frail, 91 year-old man lay dying. The child was my daughter. The man was her great-grandfather – the father of my husband’s father. This was the second and final time she would ever meet him in her life.Read More

“So, are you going to change your last name?” I was asked this question again and again in the days leading up to my wedding. It was right up there with, “Have you found your dress?” People would find out I was engaged and for some reason, they would be interested to know if I was going to adopt the surname of my future husband. My answer was always, “Yes.”Read More

Long-distance dating is hard. And given a choice, most people would probably avoid it.  But it’s also quite common. In this jet-setting age where people frequently travel for school or work, there’s a pretty good chance that at some point of the relationship, a couple will find themselves in separate cities. For some couples, the physical distance affects their relationship negatively and they eventually break up. For these people, their relationship can be described as, “out of sight, out of mind.” But for others, “distance makes the heart grow fonder,” and their relationship is strengthened during the time they are apart.Read More

Fight With Me: How We Learned to be Married is now available! In this first book we’ve written together, we give a fresh perspective of our first few years of marriage – the joys and the difficulties, the fights we had, the lessons we learned, and how we tried to make the most of that time.
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Dear Brand New Mom,

I remember feeling like I was semi-equipped for the first three months of my baby’s life. Beyond that, it was a big, blank mystery. Maybe I wouldn’t have been ready to hear about what came after those first weeks, but in retrospect, I think I would have appreciated if someone had given me a heads up or some pointers. Anyway, as one who’s only had ten months of motherhood experience, I’m not that far ahead. But hopefully what I have to say will be helpful to you. Here are some things I wish someone had told me:Read More

What’s the best thing about Halloween? It’s the babies dressed up in cute costumes! With Halloween just around the corner, we’ve compiled our top 10 baby costumes to get your creative juices flowing.
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So your birthday’s coming up.

Soon you will turn 20, or a quarter of a century, or 29, or the big 3-0 (…GASP), or 37, or whatever age you will be. You are trying not to think about it because there is this feeling of disappointment that comes with thought of getting another year older.
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Today we are celebrating our 4th Wedding Anniversary. Compared to how we celebrated our past anniversaries, this year’s festivities are lame. (My wife, who is ever the optimist prefers to call it “low-key”.) It’s our first anniversary post-baby, and it was not very spectacular.
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It’s Thanksgiving in Canada. I’m glad for this holiday as it prompts me to reflect on things that I’m grateful for.

Gratitude is a powerful thing. It causes me to be content. It gives me reason for joy. Most of all, it opens my eyes to appreciate the life that is happening around me.
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I feel like road rage is dangerous and for the most part, a wasted use of energy and life.

This blog post is my attempt to make the roads safer for someone. If this post decreases the number of times one driver goes into “road rage mode”, then the world will be a better place.
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