And the winner is....

Now that I'm based in Singapore for a project, Eve and I have settled down from our frenzy of luggage packing in early July. At that time, we were under the impression that the family would be posted to Beijing for three months. As a result, we had prepared not only Chinese visas all round, stand-by medication for Faith, a medical kit for the two of us, and a suitcase of new baby stuffs as a contingency. Today, the suitcase still remains packed....

As parents, we have quickly learned that such "contingencies" are inescapable. In fact, one can often distinguish experienced parents from people like us by the amount of contingencies in their budget. Of course, by trial and error, there are also gems we picked up early on which we swear by today. Besides such purchases, we've also learnt that sometimes, things don't really turn out the way we plan it...On this occasion of Faith's 4 months, the Faith awards go to...

1. The most useless equipment that Dad (ie. moi) bought

Bought during Eve's third tri-mester, this equipment was purchased at Mothercare along with two Winne the Pooh "night-lights" (which come to think of it, we haven't used as well). I think I had felt guilty then that I didn't buy anything for My Baby then, so thought that this "Projector" was way-cool for my little one. After all, which Baby can resist a ceiling full of night stars? Plus, you can change the slides so that it projects a moon, kaleidescope of pictures etc. This Philips Magic Theatre SCD940 costing around $100 takes its (dusty) place as the most useless equipment we've bought

2. The "darkest horse" purchase

I still remember that we were "cautioned" against investing in a baby monitor. In fact, one of our friends had early on, even offered to find his hardly-used baby monitor for us to use, so that we could see for ourselves, how truly useless it was. Plus, even our experienced confinement lady had told us that we would hear more interferences than Faith's cries. Despite these horror stories, we desperately needed something that would allow Eve to keep watch on Faith without having her physically present in the room (e.g. when she was cooking). Thankfully, Hui Fang recommended a Baby Monitor that was running digital comms and as such, served our needs to a tee. Even at check-out, we were a bit apprehensive about spending close to $150 for the Philips SCD496 DECT Baby Monitor, but we've never looked back since. Had not been for this monitor, Eve and I would not have had the chance to watch our Korean TV, read in our master bedroom, etc

3. Our most wishful thinking so far

When we were expecting Faith, we had heard "horror" stories of how kids who were sleeping in their parents' rooms, found it very difficult to later adjust to sleeping in their own rooms. Being the smart parents we were, we decided - hey, why don't WE sleep in Faith's room instead of her sleeping in our room. That way, she'd get used to the surroundings, and we can easily shift back into our rooms. Today, we are still sleeping in a pull-out convertible queen-size bed from IKEA in Faith's room. Meanwhile, our king-sized Simmons bed sits idly in our master bedroom.

In all, I'm sure there are many more regret purchases, the can't do without buys and the unfulfilled wishes. As Faith enters her 4th month, we are hopefully getting wiser and smarter - one can always hope :)