Category: Photos

I did, however, find a calibrated vegetable scale at the big marketplace in downtown Mahasarakham for 750 Baht (can weigh up to 15 kgs., green-colored 5 kgs. model was 500 Baht). To this I attached a baby bath chair with a couple plastic ties and some stiff Japanese cord (I know, I know this is just a step above duck taping, but it seems to be working out OK).

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Wiggly wiggly baby
Wiggly wiggly baby
Wiggly? Wiggly! Wiggleh? Wiggleh!
Wiggly wiggly baby!
repeat x 49,000
– lyrics by J. Yoshida
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This used to be his favorite song, but he’s since moved onto Bach fugues and Asian Jungle Punk. I’ve been polishing up my songwriting skillz, though.

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UPDATE: I forgot that the extended entry appears automatically in my RSS feed. I apologize for terrorizing any of my feed readers (although it appears I’ve already scared one into not having children). This is the true power of poop.
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I mentioned previously that we were devoting much effort to going greener by using cloth diapers. Well today, I am officially announcing we are going ungreen and switching mainly to disposables.
There are 3 main reasons for this:

1. Cloth diapers can no longer hold his big loads (we started supplementing breast milk with formula, which causes rather, erm, voluminous eruptions)
2. Disposable diapers very effectively draw wetness away from his skin, allowing him to sleep through several wettings (cloth diapers pretty much have to be changed immediately)
3. Washing 20-30 diapers plus 15-20 towels, changing sheets, and body wraps of various sizes every day is feasible only if weather conditions are favorable (dry and sunny) since we employ neither bleach nor a clothes dryer. It has been raining quite often as of late (very strange for this time of year), and if washing 30 diapers in a day sounds bad, you should try washing 90 after two straight days of rain! (yes, we have quite a few.)

Anyways, if you have the stomach for it, I have decided to illustrate the first point above in the clearest way possible. Click on the link below IF YOU DARE.

Continue reading “Why we switched to disposable diapers…” →

The other day, Miwa-san came over and gave Max a bath. Miwa-san is a Japanese nurse studying at Mahasarakham University (Dept. of Medicine since the Dept. of Nursing isn’t running a post grad program quite yet) who has been helping us with great advice, but is going back to Japan this month or next since her coursework is complete. I’ll write more about her later on.
Max was a lot calmer compared to when we were giving him baths, so we watched carefully to see what she did differently. I eventually came to the conclusion it had less to do with a soft touch than an experienced touch.
Here is Max enjoying himself:

OK, I admit he can only do it for a matter of seconds and that this photo was taken during one of those brief periods, but this is still impressive by any measure. One of these days, my child will probably onz joo (he onz me already).

In the past week, Max has:

• Lost his umbilical stub (healing nicely)
• Reached 2900 grams (born at 2500)
• Spit the dummy several times
• Started smiling in fleeting spurts, almost like a nervous tic
• Started drinking formula to augment mommy’s milk
• Been dropping heavier loads in his diapers as a result of drinking formula
• Had his finger and toenails trimmed several times

DENIAL:

ANGER:

BARGAINING:

DEPRESSION:

ACCEPTANCE: