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!
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
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.
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.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
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 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!
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
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:
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:
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?
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:
- Service cheaper than our current rate by at least 20%
- 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.
- 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.
- We want to retain our existing home number.
- Must have E911.
- 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 :)
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 :)
Saturday, August 19, 2006
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...
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...
Thursday, August 17, 2006
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)
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?
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
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
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