Sweetpea's College Cost

Sweetpea's College Costs have been worrying me for a while now even though she is not even born yet. Consider the facts for 2007:

Four Year Public School Tuition $5,836 per year
Four Year Private School Tuition $22,218 per year
Source: Collegeboard

A good rule of thumb is that tuition rates will increase at about twice the general inflation rate. With the inflation rate hovering around 3% for some time now, I can expect college tuition costs to increase by 6% yearly. Recalling the future value of money formulas from my college days:

(1+i)^t
where i is the interest rate and t is the number of years,
we substitute the i with .06 interest and t for 18 years. We have
(1+.06)^18 = 2.85.

So in 18 years, the costs for college in 2026 is roughly:

Four Year Public School Tuition $5,836*2.85 = $16,632 per year
Four Year Private School Tuition $22,218*2.85 = $63,321 per year

Now call me worried or what? These are high costs, and that does not include room and board! And I would not want my kid in $250k debt by the time she gets out of college. So what is a father to think of when it comes to future college costs?

1) Coverdell Education Savings Account
2) 529 Plans

Stay tuned for the differences between the two and the course of action that I will be taking. And remember, you can post without logging in now!

Blog commenting

Hi everyone. We were wondering why the comments section were almost always empty :( It turns out that some of our friends and family wanted to make comments on our baby blog, but gave up when they had to be a registered google/gmail user... so to make it easier for you guys, we've changed our setting. You can now post without registering for an account :) Yay! Looking forward to your thoughts and feedbacks!

Oh, to make this post still somewhat baby related, here's a funny quote I read in our Uncle John's Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader said by Robin Williams on birth: "She's screaming like crazy...You have this myth you're sharing the birth experience. Unless you're passing a bowling ball, I don't think so. Unless you're circumcising yourself with a chainsaw, I don't think so. Unless you're opening an umbrella up your butt, I don't think so." Hmm, hope it's not too bad.

It's a GIRL!

The majority vote was correct! Our Little Sweetpea is a girl! Congrats to those who guessed correctly.

We are very excited since daddy wanted a little girl as the first child... Time to think about names and buy cute girly clothes!

Sweetpea's First Photoshoot

Hello World! I have been developing in my mom's belly for some time now, about 20 weeks to be exact! The doctor got a glimpse of me with an ultrasound and looks like I am a healthy baby. The four chambers of my heart are beating loud and strong; my skeletal structure is intact; mommy was giving me good blood flow through her placenta and I am growing right on schedule.

During the ultrasound, I think my mom was kinda teary eyed when she first saw me! Daddy was very happy as well and was sorta teary eyed too! I can't wait to come out and meet everyone!

The ultrasound technician said I was very photogenic. She took lots of pictures of me and made lots of measurements. Daddy has posted some pictures of me below. Daddy and mommy would like to keep my gender hush hush for now because they would like to share my gender with all my grandparents, uncles, and aunties first! Don't worry, they will post the gender here soon.







"Hmmm... What a beautiful profile! Do I look like mommy or daddy?"














"My what ticklish feet I have!"









The results of my poll entitled "We find out Sweetpea's gender on Jan 23. Will the baby be a boy or a girl?" are listed below!
Boy - 6 votes (37%)
Girl - 10 votes (62%)

Stay tuned for more about me!

Baby resources

We thought we'd share some of the baby resources link for those who are expecting, preparing, or those that just want to learn more. The very first book that my doctor recommended when I found out I was pregnant was What to Expect When You're Expecting. Other people have mentioned this book to us as well, and overall, it gives a pretty good idea of the various stages of pregnancy from preconception, so it is also a good read for those who are planning to get pregnant (at least parts of it). From their website, people can also sign up to get personalized emails based on the pregnancy week.

Another site that daddy and I have been checking often is pregnancy.org. This website contains weekly fetal development information as well as cool ultrasound pictures to help us get an idea of what is going on inside and what the baby is developing week by week. It's pretty exciting and amazing to see the developments from a tiny little pea to a little bitty person. People can also create a pregnancy calendar through their site so that they can get some daily advice or insight about pregnancy and/or the baby.

As for researching for baby items, a great book that is associated with Bridal Bargains, a handy wedding resource, is Baby Bargains by Denise and Allan Fields. It helps parents decide on products to purchase for their little ones by providing reviews for various brands of cribs, car seats, bedding, etc. However, the latest - 7th edition, seem to have rated a lot of the car seats a notch lower due to consumer report ratings which turned out to have faulty test results; consumer reports latest revised ratings for the car seats were actually shown in the Oct 2007 print release. Along with the book, the Fields also keep up a message board where members can ask and answer questions about all things baby, and it also contains a section where one can find parent reviews on various products. Another great portion of their website is the Baby411 blog; it contains the latest baby information including recalls, registries, and current topics of concern and suggestions or solutions for them.

Feel free to add other sites on the comments section if you feel there are additional resources we should know about. Happy researching!

Oh, and some due baby thanks: Thanks Auntie Stella for the Courageous Parenting book; we're sure it'll be useful for us as we start to gather and research materials on parenting. We also want to thank Uncle Elton for emailing us a list of baby essentials to get before the baby is born and Auntie Ang for providing us with some registering tips.

Three Days and Counting

On January 23, we will finally know the gender of our baby (make sure you cast your vote on the left)! We will also know if he/she is just one, twins, or triplets! Throughout our pregnancy, this has been one of the highlights that we have been looking forward to. It will change so much. If it is a girl, we can start buying little pink outfits that say "Daddy's Little Girl", we can start buying girly patterns for our bouncer, high chair, and every other baby item out there. If it is a boy, we can start buying baby blue items and sports gear for our sweet pea!















Just remember to check back later this week as we should have our ultrasound posted up!

Possible Clues for determining Sweetpea's gender

As many of you may have noticed, we have recently put up a poll to see if most people think we're having a girl or a boy. I found this interesting article on guessing the gender. Out of those, here are some things that may help people decide... As daddy wrote previously, mommy did have a difficult time eating during the first trimester. Thank you daddy for being such a good husband by trying to find things for mommy to eat. Mommy also broke out some and still does a little bit, so daddy thinks Sweetpea may be a boy. Then again, it could be the crazy pregnancy hormones. Other signs from the list pointing to boy are dad gaining weight, cold feet, headaches, and dry hands. Other than that, mommy isn't too big yet, so we can't really say if it's pointy or riding low. For now, my belly button hasn't disappeared; that's one of the strangest sites I've seen and didn't know about before. In bigger pregnant bellies, it looks like the belly button just flips inside out. Now for the things on the list that points to girl, according to the article, breaking out and age at conception + month conceived is odd. Hmm... Anyhow, I'll leave you guys with a picture that I think looks pretty cool, but researching it online, it seems that it is controversial whether its real or not. you decide.

Babies 'R' Us - Daddy's Post

I will have to admit I do not know a whole lot about babies. Ask me to change a diaper and my response will be no. Ask me to hold an infant and I will assume a cradle position where you can drop the baby into and I will stand stiff until the baby is taken away from me. Ask me to buckle my nieces into the carseat and I will spend about 30 minutes trying to get the carseat and baby inside. Now I thought that was a lot. It was December 2007 and I took my first steps into Babies 'R' Us.


After walking into Babies 'R' Us, I was just overwhelmed by the amount of items a baby can have! I mean the store was HUGE! I don't mind the size of stores like Banana Republic where the guy's section is like one small room, but this place was gigantic! And most of the items are necessities like baby bottles, cribs, strollers, etc. So its not like I could just skip through a whole section of the store, so we went through the whole thing getting ideas! Now this was just the Bellevue store that I went to! I dropped by the Alderwood location last night and I just thought to myself I could spend days here! We started our registry there yesterday and we are only 1/3rd of the way through... even with the baby product selections of others! But in the end it is definitely all worth it as I await the arrival of our Little SweetPea!

Food Aversions - Daddy's View

It is good that mommy is passed her first trimester. During this time, one of the big effects of morning sickness for mommy was food aversions. It was very difficult for her to take down any type of foods. It was also difficult for her to even be close to the smell of food! We decided to be smart about things and so we ordered several pregnancy diet cook books. We did some research and found the "Well-Rounded Pregnancy Cookbook: Give Your Baby a Healthy Start with 100 Recipes That Adapt to Fit How You Feel".

For those of you that are not aware, pregnant people are suggested to avoid certain types of foods, such as msg, caffeine, certain fish, spicy foods, sushi, etc. After perusing this book, fajitas sounded like an excellent idea! I thought I was being a terrific husband making a special treat for mommy. I started cutting up all the green peppers, onions, and other ingredients and was thinking I would finally get mommy to eat because it was a special meal prepared by the one and only me! Instead, it turned out to be a disaster. As I threw the meat and seasonings into the pot, the smell of the fajitas just started to encapsulate the entire house and before I could open the windows, the smell just got to her. It started to make her feel sick. So we opened the windows, thinking it would be good for her. As the food was ready to be prepared, she came downstairs and the fajita aroma was just too intense for her. She decided to battle it and sit down and have a nice meal with daddy. After we had our dinner prayer, she took maybe a couple of bites and said "I don't want anymore"! I just thought to myself "huh? After all this cooking, that's all you ate?" I guess I don't realize the true impact of morning sickness, so I try to be a supportive husband and let her get away with just drinking a glass of milk. This turned out to be only one of many meals that she never finished.

And for you future dads out there, it has always been said that the mom should always "eat for two" Well, it turns out that during this first trimester, since the mommy does not eat, it turns out that the daddy is the one that is "eating for two". Daddy's belly actually grew faster and was bigger than mommy's belly during these first several months of pregnancy.

Bargain shopping for clothing

For those who are expecting or those with children, you may want to run over to Old Navy this weekend. They're having an additional 50% off their clearance prices, only this weekend. Great for those needing to stock up on maternity clothes and children/infant clothes without spending a fortune. Oh, the sale is on all the departments, so dads and others may want to check it out too :) Happy shopping!

Quickening - Contact from within

Two nights ago, we experienced something amazing. I had felt the baby before but was never really sure since the movements were here and there. On occasion, I would feel a flutter or a bubble or a twitch, but two nights ago, right before going to bed, there was unmistakably a movement from within. Daddy and mommy sat quietly and felt and heard me knocking at few second intervals. Perhaps Sweetpea was hiccuping. It was an unusual sensation, but we were excited to experience it; we can't wait until Sweetpea grows even more so we can feel more of our little one.

Baby News

We've finally decided to put together a blog to record the events of our baby's progress for our own memory and to update our friends and family. A good place to start is probably from the beginning... how I told the hubby he's going to be a daddy.

I first found out and confirmed I was pregnant on Tues, Oct 9. Daddy had gone on a business trip early in the morning, so I was contemplating when to tell him the news. I kind of left little hints in our conversation but then he thought it was all hypothetical. We both had thought that it was probably too late to conceive a summer baby, but the doctor gave us a June 12 due date. I decided to wait until he came home on Thurs to tell him the news, so I had a couple days to let it sink in a bit. While he was away, I went to purchase a onesie that says "Tax Deduction" that we had seen earlier and thought was funny, and I bought a pack of newborn diapers; I placed these in his clothes drawer with a note that says, "Make room daddy, I'm moving in! Surprise, we're 5 weeks pregnant!!" On Thurs, I cleaned up the house since my brother-in-law was visiting us. I picked him up in the afternoon, and I waited and waited for Daddy to come home... his flight kept getting delayed so I was up pretty late waiting for him. Anyhow, when he got home he had a couple things he needed to take care of, and I told him I did something to his drawer. He just thought I had put some organizers and rearranged it for him. When he finally opened the drawer, he looked up at me and went to me and kept saying, "Really?" I told him that it was true, that we were 5 weeks pregnant according to the doctor, and I told him everything. We were both thrilled. We talked and stayed up late as he went over all the things that he needs to do like clean the house to make sure things were sanitized and safe for me and the baby and to read up on babies. Before going to bed, he led us in a prayer to thank God for our precious little gift which we had been praying for.

Tomorrow we'll be 18 weeks along. Sometimes, we still can't believe we're going to be parents, but the next few months should be pretty exciting.