Father of the Century

I came across this father and son ironman team, Team Hoyt, on my church friend's blog and their story and success really moved me and made me rethink the definition of a father.
Being a new dad to my new born son, I have been facing a very steep learning curve. At times I feel frustrated when Ian gets cranky, refuses to eat or cries for no apparent reasons. But all these were nothing compared to what Dick Hoyt must had gone through when he found out that his son, Rick was strangled by umbilical cord during birth, leaving him unable to control his limbs, and the doctor determined that Rick was to be a vegetable for life. Thank God Ian is at least a very healthy baby.
When I read through their story, saw their pictures and the videos (posted below, must watch!!), I could not help but wonder to what extent I would be able to sacrifice for Ian. Will I be as great a dad as Dick? It is really amazing how love can propel a person to achieve the impossible. Their story really put me to shame, and inspired me to be a better father. And heck, to start working out again.
The next time I feel helpless with the little, defenseless, and needy baby Ian, I will remember that compared to the Hoyts' amazing achievement, my task is just a piece of cake. I hope their story will inpire you as it did me. To be honest I wasted a few tissues and had to blame the cold and the fan when Pearl was wondering why I was sniffing :p
Here's the video links:

and another one here:

I Quit!

Yes! Finally, after 9 long years, I am finally submitting my resignation letter.
At that very moment it was kind of a mixed feelings. 5% sadness (leaving the old), 95% excitement (embracing the new)...

Funny Internet Junks about Kids

GREAT TRUTHS THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED:
1) No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats.
2) When your Mum is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your hair.
3) If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person.
4) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.
5) You can't trust dogs to watch your food.
6) Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
7) Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.
8) You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
9) Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.
10) The best place to be when you're sad is Grandpa's lap.

GREAT TRUTHS THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED:
1) Raising teenagers is like nailing jelly to a tree.
2) Wrinkles don't hurt.
3) Families are like fudge...mostly sweet, with a few nuts.
4) Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
5) Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside.
6) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fibre, not the toy.

GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD
1) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.
3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there.
4) You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.
5) It is frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.
6) Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.
7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.

THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE:
1) You believe in Santa Claus.
2) You don't believe in Santa Claus.
3) You are Santa Claus.
4) You look like Santa Claus.

SUCCESS:
At age 4 success is…not piddling in your pants.
At age 12 success is…having friends.
At age 17 success is…having a drivers license.
At age 35 success is...having money.
At age 50 success is…having money.
At age 70 success is…having a drivers license.
At age 75 success is…having friends.
At age 80 success is…not piddling in your pants.

Confinement

Confinement…yes, the experience is literally what it means and worse. I never thought I would follow all these old wives practice but I did (to some extent). For me, the most horrible part is not being able to wash my hair. I waited 2 weeks before my 1st wash and the 2nd wash in another two weeks, and I had to wash it with a type of herbal water. It took 3 shampoos to rid of all the grease. Not to be gross, the first shampoo did not yield any bubble. I ate so much of the “warm food” such as ginger root, sesame seed oil and warm soup that my body felt warm all the time. I would wake up in the middle of the night with my t-shirt drenched in sweat. If it is true that my body is just trying to get rid of the extra fluid, that is great, common sweat! I did not eat much veges because veges are believed to cause gas.

Ironically, this turns out to be quite true. This is what happened, after my 1 month of confinement, I started eating normal again with veges. Ian started to experience gassiness a couple times a day. It took me a couple days to figure out that veges indeed caused the gas, which was passed on to him. This was later confirmed by Ian’s doctor…veges full of fiber can indeed cause gas. And I was eating prunes daily to avoid constipation. I did not drink plain water; instead, I had to substitute plain water with warm ‘red dates water’. This is such a hassle.

Ever heard of baby blues? Yes, it happened to me for the first 10 days of so, as much as I thought I lack of the female hormone. I experienced all those things described in books and magazines, cries easily, feeling blue, feeling inadequate as a mother, forgetfulness, restlessness, etc… The confinement period made the blues worse.

All in all, I did not follow all the confinement rules to the T and maybe my body will suffer the consequences years later? Here are a few things that I violated during my confinement month.

· I drank plain water occasionally and gallons of it when I was at the hospital because I was told by the nurses.
· I drank semi-cold ‘red dates water’ when I was too lazy to warm it up.
· I had a cup of overpriced-cold-taro-boba tea that my hubby bought for me. Hey, it was my birthday and I was confined in the house, so I deserved a treat :)
· I ate some honeydew (honeydew belongs to the melon family and is thought to be ‘cold’ to the body)
· I wet my feet everyday though I did not shower.
· I ate some veges when no one was watching (just a little that it did not cause Ian any gas problem)
· I cleaned the bathroom a couple times although I am supposed to rest as much as possible. I have high cleanliness standards…what can I say.
· I washed my hair before the month was up. Salute to all those women who waited a month to do so.
· I had the fan blowing at me most of the time. Let me explain, my body temperature was so high all the time from all the ‘warm’ food that I ate. The fan was only on low setting.
· I wore shorts and a tank for the first couple days until I was told not to. FYI, it was the hot month of September.

So whatcha say, I did pretty good huh, just a few violations :) Like the Car Talk Show on NPR, you have just wasted a perfect hour (or less) reading this posting. Till next time…

Bottle Boycott

We started introducing the bottle to Ian about 2 weeks ago and it has been a struggle. I think he is having a case of nipple rejection instead of nipple confusion. We started by using the Avent bottles. Sometimes, we successfully fed him 4 oz., sometimes he rejects the bottle completely. I will be returning to work in 2 weeks and time is running out on me. After a severe case of nipple rejection last night, I ran out to Target to get a Dr. Brown’s bottle for Ian to try. To my dismay, he rejected the Dr. Brown’s bottle as well. I began to develop a fear for feeding him the bottle, fear that he just won’t drink from the bottle. Just about an hour ago, I prayed and prayed with Ian that he will just take the bottle and he did! These days, I feel very happy when things like that happen :) Thank you Lord and I hope that he will continue to take the Dr. Brown’s bottle (cleaning the Dr. Brown’s bottle is a pain. Any thoughts and ideas about bottle feeding, please share…)

Anyway, I have been so busy at home looking after Ian that I don’t even have time to read our own blog. I find myself shoving food down my throat during most meals and running out from the toilet in the middle of my.. ehem…business. Ian is 6 weeks old now. Here is a series of pictures that I tried to take of him for his passport.

Where is My Neck?

My stomach is so big, like a frog

Are you trying to take my picture? *Shy*

I am not liking this...

That's it, no more pictures!

Hmm? What is that flashing light?

(Clicked, and finally the passport picture we wanted! Hurray!)

My friends and I

I have wanted to share my “confinement” experience but have not found the time to do so, stay tuned, let me see if I can type fast enough before our high maintenance boss wakes up.

New Financial Treasure Found!

Thanks to the daily dose of mymoneyblog, I have found the new hot new financial treasure on the market. For those of you that are ultra conservative and avoid equity market at all cost, the good news is that E-Loan offers online saving rate of 5.5% APY with a minimum opening amount of $5000 (after that you need to maintain a minimum of $500 or you account will be closed!). For the CD affectionados, the 6 month CD rate is 5.6% APY, 1 year rate 5.7% APY and 18 months rate 5.75% APY!!
This totally knocks out the previous gems like Virtual Bank, ING Direct and Emigrant Direct! And ofcourse, E-Loan is FDIC insured. Too bad it does not offer referral rewards, if not you guys can join via me and we can share the fortune, muahahaha.....

Happy One Month Old! (17 years and 11 months to go till FREEDOM)

Taukeh Ian is finally one month old, and had his "celebration" last Friday. We have so far survived 4 weeks of ordeal being new parents, and I must give 99.9% of the credit to my beloved Pearl, who relentlessly woke up in the middle of the night to do all the feedings and diaper changing though she was extremely tired. Sometimes I wish I had breast milk too. Too bad mine are too hairy - potential hazard for baby choking with hair balls.
Anyway, sticking with the Malaysian Chinese tradition, we asked our confinement nanny to make the "ang keh nui", or the "red hard boiled egg" in Penang Hokkien. She said her red dye was imported from Taiwan, very expensive one. Surprisingly our Taiwanese friends were able to recognize the uniquely Taiwanese red dye!
Judge for yourself:
Is this any different from Malaysia or US red dye?
We wanted also to thank our Chinese neighbor who graciously gave us two boxes full of baby clothings (Ian can have different onezies to wear every single day!). Unfortunately they were out of town so we ended up sharing more "ang keh nui" and an Italian Yummy Cake with our Brazillian friend at his very Brazillian BBQ night (yummy, slurp...slurp...)
And we also bought a delicious cake from Sam's for the Mandarin fellowship, to thank all the uncles and aunties for their gifts and loves showered upon little Ian:
And I surprised the mum with this, celebrating her first month of tedious yet joyous motherhood:
That's right. The el cheapo $3.99 per two dozen carnation from Sam's!
So with the end of Ian's very first month on earth, the mama also celebrated the end of, according to her, the "horrijible" one month confinement period. Imagine not bathing or washing your hair for a month. Just like the series "Lost". Without the handsome actors and beautiful actress. To top it off, she had to eat dishes cooked with the famous "Rice Wine Water" which was really overpriced (stated specially for confinement period) and really watery. I think I can make it myself with a bottle of water + a few drops of alcohol.

We Survived Three Weeks of Parenthood!

It was quite unbelievable that we actually survived the entire three weeks of parenthood. In a weird way, we were glad that our parents were not here to help...you cannot imagine how much we have learnt for this past few weeks, having to learn and do everything by ourselves! The learning curve is definitely a geometrical progression.
Many thanks to all our dear family and friends' advices and prayers!
Pardon my "stupid proud new dad" attitude, but I just can't help but to share with you three more pictures before I hit the sack...

"I am the Zhao Cai Mao (the Cat statue typical in Japanese/Chinese restaurant to bring good luck/money to the store)" post:
"Ok ok, I surrender lah!":
"I am Simba the little LION KING! ROARRRR!!!!":

Ian's First Crying Scene...

Ok, I promise this will be the LAST of "Ian's First" Trilogy. Wait, may be some pre-quel later, just like my beloved starwars. Anyway, seems like he was getting hungry, so that was a hunger cry. Notice how mama was too indulged in shooting video, and forgot that the little stomach is empty and angry :p

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Ian's First On Screen Sneezing!

He definitely has the potential to sneeze like me next time.

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Ian's First Kung Fu Flick!

Little Jet Li/Bruce Lee may be? Muahahaha papa can be your manager next time, just sit back and collect cash...

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Which Worship Style?

Pearl and I served in our church worship team as bassist and guitarist. There were many occasions where we lamented that our worship style was “slow” and “conservative”, and secretly wished that we could play faster, livelier and more “rock” style contemporary worships songs. So which is a “better” style for worships? Is it solely depending on who the audiences are? Are the old traditional hymns fading away from today’s contemporary trends?
READ THIS. Thanks Allen for the insightful article.

Hot Babe Pictures!

Yup, it was hot in Houston alright, almost 93°F outside. The air condition did not help much, but I can already foresee the next month's energy bill to be the highest we ever had. Thanks to the Texas Power to Choose website, we have just made the switch from the extremely expensive Reliance to Gexa Energy. I will do another review in may be three months time and hopefully I will be able to post the comparison analysis.
Anyway, back to our little subject today. I was trying out my Contax AX with Fuji Superia ISO 1600 fast speed film. Much to my dismay, contrary to the advertised fine grain, I found the grain on the film was a little too much for my taste. However I do admit that it provides excellent photo opps especially in our low lited rooms. After a while I got used to the graininess and in fact found that the high grain gives the photos a special aura.
Here're some pictures that I have tested with the film:
This is Pearl's favourite:
This is my favourite. Some how I like to see how he yawns. May be because I am soooo sleepy :Taken with a 16mm Fisheye:Taken with Contax Macro Tube:One of my favourite moments, when Ian's tiny hands tightly gripped my fingers:
Pearl's mom was commenting on Ian's finger, "Wah very long, very "eu-siu" (elegant in hokkien) , can be pianist next time". I was secretly hoping Ian would become a rock guitarist instead :p
Foot massage using thumb only. Even our thumbs are much larger than his toes!The "THING", that many new parents dare not touch, afraid that it might cause pain, infection, bleeding etc. We were glad that Ian's dropped off in about two weeks. Now we can bathe him in water! It will be fun. Will post the video next time :)

The Baby Ian Show Episode 1

(Drum roll)....presenting little baby Ian's first live performance!
The first episode will show how baby Ian changes mood from happy to cranky to crying out loud!

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God's Tiny Little Creation

It is not easy to be parents. It is even more difficult to be first time parents of new born infants. They are so tiny, so fragile, yet a simple yawn will bring tears of gratification and make you forget about all the sleepless hours.
All your tiredness and anxieties seemed to be paid off with just looking at the cute, lovely, tiny little being.
It almost moved us to tears just by looking and holding Ian's tiny little fingers.
Even the belly button that has not fallen off seems lovely to the parents' eyes.
And not forgetting the tiny little feet that resembles pineapple, yum yum.

VS.

Free Ipod Nano 2G!

Finally Ian the taukeh is sound asleep now. Taking a break from the baby, I was surfing the internet for good deals, as any cheapo Penang Lang would do, and came across this fantastic good deal. Yup it is a free Ipod Nano 2G if you have $10k to be put in some investment account for at least 9 months, while earning some gain or interest at the same time. Make sure you read all the fine prints before making the plunge!

Thanks to financial deals websites like Fatwalllet and Moneyblog, this is the second time I see a good deal to get free Ipod. I got my free Ipod nano the first time I saw the opportunity, from NY Jets Credit Card. But that was only 1G. Grr....too bad I already opened the Ameritrade account when they have free Palm Treo 650 to give away...a second Ipod with 2G will be good!

p/s: happy birthday dearest sis wei wei!

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka Baby!

Houston (Leuters Sep 6 06) - This is the 6th day since the war between crying baby and panicking parents broke out. So far it was a losing battle for the parents side, but things are changing for the better, with aids and advices pouring in from allies such as friends and relatives. The scene at the site during the first two days of the battle was a far cry from the peaceful era, before the arrival of his royal highness Taukeh Baby Ian. Things were left messy, and the parents were chaotic and panicky, as can be best summarized in Malay, kelam-kabut. Food were scarce and simple and the battles ran through day and night tiring the extremely fatigue parents.

Then things starting to resume when the mecenary from Taiwan arrived. At least for 1 month the parents need not worry about "miscellaneous" house hold chores and can concentrate on the on going battle. Will the panicky parents win the final war? Only time can tell...

Reporting live from Houston, CS & Pearl.
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Yes finally taukeh Ian has arrived, right on the Merdeka Day!
And believe it or not, Ian is a baby with many looks:
The Grand VIP Arrival look:
The puffy-cutesy look:
The Sleepy-head look:
The Misty-lovey eyes look:
The I-Know-What-You-Did-Last-Summer look:
The Killer-Caterpillar look, Grrrr...:
The Mike Tyson Boxing-in-the-carseat look:
The Sleeping Prince look:
And finally, the Dancing Disco look:

Comprain about Maternity Leave...

Finally, tomorrow will be both Merdeka day and the day baby Ian is scheduled to be “forced out” of his cozy snuggly womb…if he decides not to surprise us and arrive today, or even, tonight!

Anyway, Pearl was chatting with her Brazilian clients and discovered that in Brazil, maternity leave is an ass-whopping 6 months and for dad at least 3 days! This is unthinkable in the most capitalist land in the world. Here we only get a whimsy 6 weeks if you have natural birth and 8 if caesarian. This is just barely enough for the moms to rest and get ready to start work again. What about spending quality time with the babies during the crucial first year of development? And the worst part is that for father, you get zilch, nada.

I have heard from my Scandinavian colleagues that in Sweden, Mom gets 6 months off, and another 6 months half-salary leave. And this is the best part: The dads get at least 6 months off on half the pay too! Here you can see the distinct difference between a capitalist and a socialist society.

However, all the good things, except for air, come with a price. For all the benefits of a socialistic society, you are burdened with a hefty tax (something like 50% in Scandinavian countries?). This is not too bad for the parents, considering the benefits they are getting, but this will be nightmare for the singles who do not enjoy any tax breaks!

What about maternity or even paternity’s leaves in other countries? If you have heard of any, please share a little in the comment page. If I get enough responses, I will draw up a comparison chart!

Delayed Product Launch

Day to product “lunch”: -1 day.

Sigh, baby Ian decided that it is cozier snuggling in mommy’s tummy, and so far has refused to show any sign of arriving into this world. Another day, another anxious 24 hours.

I don’t blame him, seeing the chaotic conditions of the world we are living in today. Rising crime rates, worsening weather conditions, rising living costs, worsening health care affordability…On the plus side, we have newer and cheaper technology (go Google!) and if all things fail we always have God walking through the difficult time with us :)

Anyway, I was thinking of what to do during the actual action. Besides the mandatory “hee-hee-hee-hoooooooo” breathing method, what can we do to make the whole process much easier?

Have you heard of giving birth in water? I think this is not a bad idea.

An Overview of Diaper Cost Analysis

Countdown to product launch date: 4 days.

To date Pearl is still pretty active (ok ok, and also pretty and attractive, yes dear I have already written that down…), still able to do some light work out, and still cooks everyday. In other words, there is no imminent sign that the little rascal is coming out anytime soon. Though little kow-kia is safe and snug in his mom’s tummy, the mommy can’t wait for him to get out. It pains my heart every time I see her suffer from various symptoms of pregnancy: kicking in the liver, gaseous stomach, indigestion, Braxton-Hicks contractions (can’t tell for sure, since this is her first time!), back ache, occasional insomnia etcetera etcetera. This is worse than the last time she fell ill…

Today will be her last day to drive to work, and starting tomorrow I will be her dedicated chauffer, or as they say, Tchaikovsky, in Cantonese. This is just in case if the baby decides to come out during work hours, I will be able to drive her to the hospital without the hassle of having to park another car at her company’s garage. Grab bag – check; baby seat – check; diapers –check. So we are ready to go. Anyway, in case Ian shows the early sign of a superstar and be fashionably late, we will have to go through the painful inducing process. The bright side is that we will have a Merdeka day baby! Rumors have it that he will receive life time supplies of diapers, milk powder etc from the government. I wonder if this will be reported on the newspaper. I should also make sure that Jeff Ooi gets that piece of news from our dedicated Sugarland agent.

By the way, my eyes squint every time I think of the diapers. I hope the rumor is true else diapers will be quite a big expense for such a tiny human. And on top of that to remember that I am the dedicated diapers changer, since I do not, unfortunately, produce milk. At least now we have a used Diaper Genie, which may help to reduce the odor a little, nonetheless comes with another expense – all those refills!

Anyway, back to what I intended to share with the parents or parents to be out there: the cost of diapers. According to the blind test conducted by one of our potential in-laws, there is no difference in quality and feel between the cheaper in-house brands such as Smiles (Sam’s) and the expensive branded diapers like Huggies Supreme. In the effort to continue his paradigm-shifting endeavor, CS & Pearl Marketing Institution has conducted an in-depth price survey of diapers on the market and concluded that the winner in terms of cost of diapers are, in no particular order, Target, Smiles (of Sam’s Club) and, surprise…surprise, Luvs! And our study also found that the myth of cheaper diapers from online 800diapers.com store is certainly not true, even if taken into account of the 0% tax and free shipping!

If you look at costs alone, the house brands of Target and Sam's win hands down. The cheapest diaper for new born is none other than the Target Brand from Target (so uncreative…). So now we know where all our Target gift card will go to :) A word of advise for baby showers - register at Target!!

The winner for size 1 and 2 are again both Target’s house brand, Target (yawn...). If your baby is between size 3 to 5, Sam's Smiles is the cheapest brand to consider. For larger baby of size 6, surprise surprise...Luvs is the winner!

A copy of the detailed market analysis can be DONWLOADED HERE.

We completed the study with a hypothetical calculation, comparing the costs of purchasing the most expensive diapers vs. the least expensive.

Assumptions:
- baby changes diapers 4 time more often than toddler
- you potty train your toddler by age of 2
- weighted average of diaper unit price is estimated based on linear usage relationship

The results show that all things equal, the cheapest diapers costs 56% less than the most expensive brands. So depending on the frequency of diaper usage, the potential saving could range from $500 to $1k.

So what’s the conclusion? Diaper money is NOTHING compared to other more costly expenses such as DAY CARE & EDUCATION!!

Let us all start using Huggies Supreme on those delicate little behinds!

To VoIP or not to VoIP?

Here is our first attempt at sharing some cost saving tips, if the response is good, more will follow!

How much do you spend on your phone bills every year? For those of us that make frequent phone calls to Malaysia and Singapore, the additional fees of international phone cards really add up to a larger phone bill than we expected.

For us, we subscribe to the SBC landline for $21.53 after tax, and recently it has increased to $23.22 after SBC merged with AT&T. So that adds up to $278.64 after tax, per year. I think that is the older rate, which is much lower than the current new rate under AT&T. As for our international phone card, we switched to the Purple Card after our cost-savvy sister-in-law introduced it to us. To date, we found that it is perhaps the cheapest reliable phone card available for calls to Malaysia (2.5 cents/min for landline, 5 cents/min for cell). On average we use up about $20 worth of calls every month, so that adds up to $240 per year (tax free, since purchased online), with a grand total of $518.64 per year of phone bills!

Realizing how expensive the phone costs can be, we started looking for cheaper alternatives online. There are, of course, many cheaper options available. One of the most popular and free service is Skype and the like (VoIP phones). However, not all the services, especially the free ones, match our requirements. In search of a better, cheaper phone service, we are looking for:

1. Service cheaper than our current rate by at least 20%


2. We don’t want to log into our pc every time we want to make a phone call, so that rules out pretty much all of the free services like Skype, Gizmo Project, VOIP Buster, jajar etc.


3. We should be able to use the phone just like a normal landline and make calls to other phones, not pc. This again rules out all of the free services…sob sob.


4. We want to retain our existing home number.


5. Must have E911.


6. Ability to call internationally, especially to Malaysia and Singapore for free, as an added advantage.

The first three criteria left us with VoIP service providers such as Vonage, Viatalk and SunRocket. And since SunRocket’s Sunspots gives us FREE UNLIMITED calls to Malaysia and Singapore, this seems to be THE choice to go! With $299 per year (no taxes, hidden fees, yay!), we will be saving $219.64 a year!

However, given the good bargain, there are still some concerns that make us reconsider our choice:

• Though calls to Malaysia and Singapore (and Australia too, to our relatives there!) landlines are free, it costs $0.08 per min to call Malaysia’s mobile and $0.03 for Singapore’s mobile.


• Phone will not work if there is power or internet outage. However, every modern human has a cell phone anyway, so we can live with this.


• We have to keep our expensive cable plan, instead of a cheaper DSL, which requires a traditional phone line. Since DSL is not available to our area for some stupid reason, this is not our concern for the time being.

So given the setbacks above, should we get a cheap local plan and continue using the Purple Card? A quick glance at the VoIP review page shows that the cheapest plan goes to Zingotel for $5.95, which includes free local and 100 min US and Canada. This totals to $191.40, giving us an even more substantial saving of $327.24 per year! However, the user review shows that it has probably the worst customer service…which we will definitely regret!

So, to VoIP or not to VoIP? That is the question.

What is your take on this?

Honey, where’s the Diaper Money?

I was never good at managing money and I was a complete idiot when it came to investing. Until I met my better half, my “wilder, younger days” had contributed much of my earnings into the growth of Singapore entertainment and pub industries. Like how we always hear our grandparents mentioned about the stories of them or their parents who came from China with just a few bucks in their pocket; I came to the amorican land with a pathetic US dollar bank account and a broken guitar (trying to romanticize the whole thing for my future descendants to worship, muahaha).

Anyway, the biting reality hit me right before our wedding when I started to look into our future: housing mortgage, rising education fee, expensive healthcare etc. So I was kind of “forced” to look into ways of saving money, good investments and bargain deals. My interest gradually snowballed into hobby, and now instead of playing computer games at my free time, I scavenge the sea of information in the internet for good tips on saving and investing.

I will share with you on this blog some of the information. Hopefully all of us will become better at saving up money for the diapers, milk powder, education, toys, books, ipods, that spiderman figurine, that limited edition Barbie dolls, and many other things that one day your little angels will ask for and you can’t refuse :)

The Most Beautiful Picture

I remember vividly when Pearl was waiting eagerly with me in the ultrasound room. Before that we had already heard the miraculous sound of Ian's heart beat, that almost brought us to tears. And then the moment we had been waiting finally arrived. The doctor was calm and joked with us to ease our nervousness, and to a certain extent, our fear. Fear for the health & growth of our baby, as any parents would be.

With a swift of motion, the doctor moved the device up her belly. Then we saw the most beautiful image we had ever seen in our lives:


"Oh my God what is that pointy little thingy?"
"Is that what I think it is?"


"Congratulations! It's a BOY!!" Smiled our doctor.
So now the The Ancient Chinese Imperial Calendar of Baby Gender Selection was officially 86% accurate...

Genesis - the Beginning

In the beginning, it all started with this picture:


Ok, so it didn’t begin there...if you want to argue biologically…actually it started a few weeks before picture was taken. Yup, our little specimen (tag name: kow-kia) started the formation of life after we were done with our graduate studies. As scientific as we are, we wanted to predict and control the outcome with the current available tools and methodology, taking into account various factors that will potentially affecting the results.

First, the gender. Should our first specimen be a male or female? Frankly, to us it didn’t really matter because all creations are gifts from God anyway, and as long as the specimen is healthily formed we will be more than happy. One thing both of us wanted, or rather, hoped, was to have specimens of both genders, so that we shall enjoy the experience of raising specimens of both genders.

Then we started analyzing the pros and cons of having an elder male or female alpha to take care of the younger female or male beta. Then, after much research and intellectual argument, we unanimously passed the resolution that the benefits of having an elder alpha male outweigh that of an elder alpha female. So with the agreed goal in mind, we proceeded with our mission.

Next, we looked at the available tools to facilitate the gender selection process. After much research and discussions, we eliminated the more impossible methodologies such as genetic manipulation (due to budget constraint) and dubious hearsays such as the type of food and the position of the plan execution process. That left us with only one tool that could potentially produce a result with accuracy close to 85% (according to the consensus we gathered) – The Ancient Chinese Imperial Calendar of Baby Gender Selection. What a mouthful.

Anyway, fast forward to 38 weeks later, here we are, eagerly awaiting the little specimen with tag name kow-kia to emerge from the incubation device called Occupied Vehicle Awaiting Ripened Y-chromosome. The countdown clock, courtesy of NASA, was showing 11 days till product launch date. Meanwhile, many unsolved questions the creators’ minds, e.g. who will the specimen resemble? Will the specimen be healthy? Will the specimen be covered with abundant hair due to the maternal gene?

We, the scientifically inpired biological creators of little kow-kia, will diligently record on this scientific journal as a mean to share our discovery and experience of receiving and raising kow-kia with other enthusiasts.

CS & P Biological Research Institute of Technology (Houston Campus)

Names

My Co-workers are really excited for us. Besides starting a pool on Ian’s arrival date, they tried very hard to think of some names for me to consider. They know that I am Chinese but to them, Chinese are the same as Japanese and any other Orientals, thus those Japanese names. As a Chinese, it was assumed that I ate egg rolls every day, thus the name Egg Roll Ong. How about Miguel Ong with a totally Chinese face?

Counting Down

12 days till my due date and counting down. I can't wait and am so over this pregnancy. It wasn't until my last 6 weeks that I started feeling pregnant. After my 4 months of morning sickness, I was enjoying my pregnancy times and was able to do pretty much everything I was doing before I was pregnant. Now, Ian is getting so big and strong. He is using my liver as a punching bag. Boy, does he like to work out. The rashes on my limbs are better but still visit me sometimes, especially at night. My belly feels like it is on the verge of exploding after every meal. My colleagues are mimicking my waddle whenever they are walking behind me. I wake up almost every 1 to 1.5 hours every night to either because of some pain somewhere or urge to use the bathroom. You think I ought to spank Ian for all these when he comes into this world ;p