Of breastfeeding and other things

Oh well. Gave up. Poor Baby has a hoarse voice from screaming the past few days so she's back. It's nice though. My baby is my baby again, and now her other caregivers are less disapproving because they feel so sorry for her with her hoarse voice, though that hasn't stopped her from yelling at her brothers.

Google is a wonderful thing. Have found a multitude of suggestions for treatment if feeding babies is painful - none involve stopping the feeding, mind you. Goes so far as saying the poor mother should just take some painkillers to help bear with the pain while baby sucks on. There's even a fancy device that loops around the mother's neck, with thin tubes running down and taped to the breast, so baby can suck on the breast and get supplement milk !

Anyway, have been busy shopping in the US stock market. Our singapore dollar has been allowed to rise against the US dollar, and the rising oil prices have helped push down the prices somewhat, including my beloved Berkshire, and my not so beloved Citigroup that has still been falling since I bought it. A small warning though. If you are buying shares from another country, check out what the rules are if there's a chance you may die while still holding on to them. Shares are also subject to the laws of the country they are bought from, just like property, even though one can just buy them off the internet without ever stepping foot in that country.

A little comment on the rising singapore dollar. We had an old civil servant ( the kind that's old enough to be an institution in himself) who's annoyed with the current money policy people for allowing that to happen to battle inflation ( ie if our sing$ is stronger, will be cheaper to buy imported stuff since we barely produce anything ourselves). He says that wouldn't help in the long run and other solutions have to be sought, since a rising sing$ will make us less competitive internationally.

Can't win. Am just consoling myself that BP should do well this year. I hope.

Cambridge and other stuff

I'm back. Had a wonderful time, which explains why I'm kind of depressed. It's one of those things. You spend ages looking forward to something, then have a great time, and come home feeling like a deflated balloon.



The boys tolerated the flight (14 hours) very well. Watched movies all the way there, and slept all the way home. Apart from waking up at 5am every morning, and telling the nice driver who fetched us from Heathrow that he was a fat man, the boys were very well behaved.



They loved the ducks, the sheep, the cool-ish weather ( though it hit 28 degrees centigrade while we were there and has since fallen back to about 12 degrees). They survived the stuffy graduation in latin ( called everyone penguins) without making their presence too obvious. We told them all the 800 year old college buildings like King's College and Trinity College were castles without knights. And they got to visit the "real" Thomas the Tank Engine. Have renewed their first love and resurrected the entire Thomas set and packed the Transformers away.



Daddy collected his 5th degree. I thought he was the only mad one. But we met lots of people who had not stopped studying since they graduated half a century ago and loving it. I should have known. This was the place when 6 years ago, I was invited to a birthday party by a 90 year old. The average age at that party was about 85. There I was, surrounded by all these old dears, who wanted to know what I did back home in the far east. I tried to be modest and told them I was a doctor. " Really ?" They asked. " Of what ?". I had to admit that I was only a medical doctor, and yes, it was my first degree, and no, I didn't have any plans to pursue a PhD in fine arts like French Renassiance Literature or something ( that's what my 90 year old friend had).



Baby is another problem altogether. She was furious at being left behind and has started waking up at night and yelling her head off. She's replaced me with the bottle, which is rather sad. Apart from one other mother who was very sympathetic cos she went through this whole "my baby isn't my baby anymore" phase, and husband who had no choice but to be sympathetic, everyone else has practically congratulated me that she's bottle-trained and most disapproving that I should try to re-establish ties. I guess I can bond in other ways and at 15 months, she's hardly a baby anymore. It's the yelling at night that's driving me nuts. For someone who's not terribly jet-lagged, I'm really tired.

For the first time in my life, after 3 kids, I'm worried about putting my baby to sleep tonight. On the up side, she has expanded her vocabulary and has added "bower" to her list ( that's flower).

Anyway, that's it for now. Am thinking of changing my blog to Grow Old Along with Me.

More ramblings

No, I haven't left yet. Just found that I do have some time on my hands afterall, having finished most of my packing, I hope.


I've just noticed that someone from Omaha, Nebraska, visited my little post on Berkshire Hathaway. That's a bit daunting. Still, I didn't say anything nasty in that post. Plus, I noticed that the price has dropped a little recently and am putting together some cash to pick some up once I get back.


I decided to go with the antihistamines afterall and started the boys on their doses. They were quite pleased initially to get some medicine, even though i told them I wasn't going to the toy shop after the pharmacy but then were less thrilled when (a) they still had to go to school today, and (b) the medicine didn't taste quite as nice as their usual Calpol ( Panadol).


I've also paid in some money so my credit card is now in a positive balance, instead of being on credit, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a credit card if you're paying in advance, but I'm not going to be caught in UK with no money, and no credit line. Husband has busted my credit limit paying for his next conference air tickets. We're trying to save for a new printer with our credit card points. have stocked my little home with freebies over the years !


Dug out my Robert Kiyosaki book again and am mildly depressed. I just don't have enough courage to buy leveraged properties to make lots of money. Think I'll just come home and slowly think about what I want to buy. Everything's neither here nor there at the moment. Toohigh to buy, too low to sell. But that's good. Stable.


Baby has gone off the bottle again. And learning to be a selfish little brat who yells when her brothers don't give in. Sigh. Father says having a cute face doesn't make up for character deficits.


Friend who's a high achiever and married to another high achiever and never at home has recently been very distressed cos her 7 year old son has been caught stealing. And not just plain old stealing money. No, this young man stole his friend's colour pencils ( from another class), and sold it to another kid in another class for $2, then used that money to buy his soft drink. Not dumb. Told another neighbour, who sighed, and said her kid at age 8 , couldn't even keep track of her own colour pencils. Had to console this friend who thinks she's failed as a mother and thinking of quitting altogether , before her son gets jailed. But I do think going part-time and spending more time with the kid seems like a good idea.

Holidays again !!

I'll be off for another holiday next week. This time, we're off to Cambridge, UK. Have been preparing the boys for the long flight. Am thinking maybe I'll have to use lollipops to keep their ears clear all the way. They've never had antihistamines before , and to start them for the first time on the flight seems a bit brave to me. Number Two is thrilled. He's come to the happy conclusion that lollipops are bad for his teeth but good for his ears.

Our stock market appears to have recovered very well. Funny things, stock markets. Can't predict them at all. I don't think I'll do anything exciting just before a holiday. Not thinking straight. will figure things out when I get back.

In the meantime, I'm just going to make sure I increase the credit limit on my card ! I figure UK probably accepts credit cards !!

See you in 2 weeks !!

Langkawi

Yay !! Just got back from my holiday !! Was great. Wonderful. Money well-spent. Gone, but who cares ?

The picture on top is a view from our room window. Langkawi means "brown eagle" cos they've got those birds around. Beautiful little island in Malaysia. Has turned into a tourist spot.

I'd really been looking forward to spending some time with the boys. MIL had kindly offered to take Baby for a few days even though she was only vaguely bottle-trained.

Husband was a bit dubious at the packing stage as he surveyed my little organised piles of various bits and pieces. I cheerfully told him as long as I had the passports and a credit card, nothing else was important.

Of course I didn't count on credit cards not being accepted at most of the touristy things. Apparently some nasty person had run up a bill of a few thousand dollars on a fake card, and now the locals didn't trust those things anymore. Only the hotel was prepared to take credit cards. And with only a swimming pool which the boys had grown tired of after 2 hours, and daddy busy for the next 2 days at his conference, suddenly this whole bonding thing was not quite working out the way I planned. I had to try to back-peddle the Underwater World, Cable Car ride, Eagle Feeding, Bat Cave, Fish feeding, Boat Ride etc etc. Number Two wasn't impressed. He really wanted the Underwater World, and he can go on and on like a stuck record when he doesn't get what he wants. Number One was still pleased with the cows he had never seen so was gainfully occupied trying to photograph them. But after the cows and a few scattered fish in the jetty, I was stuck.

Fortunately, Daddy got reimbursed for his airline ticket in cash, so we blew it on all the nice touristy things I'd promised the boys, and the holiday was great !

They did get to learn a small lesson on money. I gave them RM$10 each to buy something and they decided to spend it on a few plastic wind-up penguins. It was their money, so I let them buy them. Unfortunately we walked into the next shop and there were Power Rangers there for sale. That's when they learnt that (a) they'd spent their money on the penguins, and (b) the shop lady wasn't going to take them back. Still, I'm proud to say, they managed to spend the afternoon inventing games, fairly non-violent as well, that involved penguins. And those little penguins went with us on all our excursions, and I'm told, enjoyed themselves as well.




That's not exactly the room we stayed in, but it looks like it. Haven't figured out how to download the pictures off the camera yet !