Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
Third World Cake(TM) Checklist:
It was kind of a celebration for Max’s 2nd week of life outside of mommy – and the underlying chocolate spongecake was actually pretty good, and not overly sweet like 99% of sweets here.
Jak was my dad’s Shih Tzu. My bro, Adam, gave Jak the monkey a few years back. I stole it from Jak and have now given it to Max. This monkey has traveled all around the world by plane, train, ship, and automobile. I use a photo of it as an avatar everywhere. The monkey has no name, it’s only known as “Jak’s monkey.”
I never imagined such a cute little thing could poop so often. Max, when not sleeping or breastfeeding, is soiling diapers (and our clothes as well) at a highly efficient rate. I would say at this point we are going through 30 diapers per day, as well as assorted towels, blankets, and baby clothes that get soiled as well (one downside to cloth diapers is that they have no plastic layer to keep the juiciness sealed in).
My mental checklist from the past 24 hours looks something like this:
Poo
Pee
Pee
Pee
Poo
Double double (2 pees + 2 poos consecutively/simultaneously, in random order)
Pee
Very wet fart/not quite poo
Pee
Pee
Poo
Super pee (soiled mommy/daddy’s clothes as well as own)
Pee
Poo
Hot squirt from bottom when changing
Pee
Pee
Super pee
Triple double (including attempted pee in daddy’s face when changing)
Pee
Poo
Pee with small poop squirt
/end of cycle
But so far, I have to admit this is kinda fun. My boy can pass gas loudly and unabashedly, sometimes on the very hand that changes his nappies, and that is something, as a man, of which I can be proud.
Today we must make a run for wet wipes, baby laundry detergent, and food at the local mini-Tesco. The best wet wipes and disposable diapers available in Thailand (that we’ve seen so far at least) is a Japanese brand called MamyPoko (parent company: Unicharm). Mamypoko makes great products at competitive prices… We don’t take Max out very often, but when we do, we’ve decided to use disposables… It’s one less thing to worry about, and the finished product makes a great projectile for idiots who double park.
Bonus trivia: Disposable diapers no longer employ adhesive tabs! They have a Velcro-like system, but the texture isn’t rough like normal Velcro. Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s magic or something!
OK. I’ve gotten all the LOLcats-babyblogging out of my system, I think.
Guess he’ll have to grow into it. As a sidenote, this may have been the only car seat for sale in all of Mahasarakham. Since it was the last one in the only store that we know sells car seats, perhaps there is literally nowhere to buy them here anymore. It was about $90 and has genuine-looking European safety certification markings on it.
I have officially decided that his western (and therefore, most important) name is Max. Nam has yet to decide on a Thai name. It would be funny to change it at this point because we tried it out for a couple days and some of our visitors overheard us – next thing you know, people are calling up and congratulating us on “Max.” Besides, it just fits him.
Next question: To -imilian or not to -imilian. Simple “Max,” or go for a bit of flair with “Maximilian?” Come to think of it, emulating the first google hit for that name might be fairly classy: His Imperial Majesty Maximilian I, Emperor of Maha Sarakham and Protector of the Northeast. I think it’s got a nice ring to it.
What to do?
Max or Maximilian?
Either way, I’m calling him Max, or Maxie until he stops breastfeeding, at least. There’s an argument to be made that the -imilian is a useless appendage. On the other hand, I sometimes think it would be nice to have a tail even if I didn’t really use it, so I’d like to hear some opinions here.
What say ye?
See? The baby really is lucky! I went to buy a case of water at a farmer’s wholesale mart and stumbled onto the grand mother of unfortunate branding – Golden Shower Brand Sugar!
“For the perverted diabetic in you!”
I just appreciate that they seemingly got the trademark (TM) – then again, in most parts of Asia, sometimes a marking is just a marking so – maybe they just claim to have the trademark. It’s time for someone to jump on this opportunity; the Golden Shower name must expand across cultural boundaries and product lines alike!
The phantom wireless signal never returned after I lost it last night before knocking out, so I’m taking time between washing new cloth diapers at home to post these.
BTW, the baby has expressed extreme distaste for automatic transmissions AND front wheel drive – what a little purist!. Lucky for him I have the Crown..
UPDATE: I just realized that last sentence might be a bit misleading – Nam and the baby are staying in the hospital for at least a few more days. I’m at home doing chores while Nam’s little sis helps watch the baby. Nam seems to be healing nicely since the operation yesterday. She was able to get up and walk a little today after they took out the IV and catheter.
Baby is not nursing yet. I can make him stop crying on command – “Hey Poopy Pants! Stop crying!!” Just kidding, he stops because he loves me. Fear shouldn’t be necessary until he starts playing with electrical outlets and stuff.
Today the baby was born and I got a small tax return from the Japanese government that I was waiting for for two years. What are the odds?
Plus, this amazing phantom wifi access point kind of fades in whenever I really NEED a connection, but is invisible the rest of the time.
Let’s see… born on 6/18 at 18:06 (UPDATE: Today is of course 4/18, not 6/18. Hey, give me a break – there was a lot happening. Maybe not to me directly, but there was a lot happening.). There’s definitely some lucky lotto number action happening there, or something.
We got into a VIP suite of sorts here at the hospital because of Nam’s nurse friends. I’m in a decently sized air-conditioned room with a sofa, fridge, shower room, and TV, and Nam is sleeping with the baby in the adjoining room. Nam’s little sister is keeping watch on the sofa in there. Their room is a lot warmer than in here because the baby needs to be acclimatized to the temperature outside mommy’s womb a little at a time. He likes sucking on his fingers, since Nam has been told to hold off nursing him until the doctor can give her a thorough check up tomorrow. Ah, hell, who am I kidding? He would like to suck on his fingers anyway… Or I would, at least (on mine, not his).
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Baby and mommy (kinda goofy from double morphine spinal block):
Already drinking shots:
Hates wearing socks, just like his dad:
From our road trip to Pattaya a couple weeks ago.
If you love frogs, you probably shouldn’t read the latter half of this post, but I’m not hiding it in the extended entry, either. Do or do not, there is no try, as it were.
(as always, click on any photo to open a larger version in a pop-up window)
This post goes out to my brother Adam, who definitely might be man enough to eat skewered frogs after a few beers (although we did it sober here). The one I pulled apart in the tissue shown above was pregnant, so the blurry black and white dots are eggs. Actually, the pregnant frogs were more expensive than the non-preggers (30 Baht/stick vs. 20 Baht/stick).
I’m going to preempt any “the trees are screaming” complaints at this time by pointing out that this is normal fare for hunters and gatherers, which many of the indigents here are.
I will also go on record that these frogs do not taste like chicken. They do not taste too bad, though… That is, they don’t really taste of anything, really – it tastes like you are eating a rich, fatty protein, if that makes any sense. Maybe like a roasted shishamo, but not as delicious. I will admit that it took a bit of courage to eat one. After all, it was the same kind of frog I found in my shoe a while ago (called un-an in Thai).