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.