Month: January 2009

Sixth disease aka exanthem subitum aka roseola infantum

Max has roseola. Yesterday the fever left and the pediatrician said the rash would peak, and it seems that the concentrated red spots all over baby’s face, chest, and back have turned somewhat blotchy and less well-defined today. The important thing is that Max is getting stronger again. We played around some yesterday and even though he didn’t smile so much, it was a relief to see him demanding mental stimulation again. Until two days ago was just horrible – he was hugging mommy all day and got weepy about anything.
Last night, he actually let me hold him and put him to sleep with two conditions:

  1. I didn’t stop walking
  2. I didn’t even think about stopping walking

So I held him and walked around the living room from 9pm to 3 am. This is only fair, since mommy has been taking care of him every night like this, although I kinda went into this Gumpish trance and couldn’t stop walking or even change the arm I was holding him with – my left arm feels like it did a thousand pull-ups or something. I gave him milk from a bottle when he woke up every couple hours and Nam finally got some uninterrupted sleep. In fact, I believe her exact words right before she fell unconscious were, “haha now you know what it feels like,” followed by, “don’t wake me up.”
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Max is sick

It started with a runny nose a week ago, then a fever four days ago. Then coughing two days ago and a rash on his face this morning. The pediatrician thinks it’s a bacterial infection in his intestines and perhaps an allergy as well. Max is now on an antibiotic course and taking a lot of fluids – mama’s milk, lactose-free formula (mostly sugar it seems), electrolyte beverage and water.
I’m not too worried because he’s a strong boy and getting sick is part of growing up, but it’s hard on Nam because he’s even more weepy and sensitive than he was a few days ago. She’s not getting much sleep at all, and is basically carrying him all day and all night except when he allows the nanny or me to spell her for a little while. We have to go see the pediatrician again tomorrow. Here’s to hoping it all ends well soon (especially the rash on his face, it pains us to look at it and we couldn’t bear to take a photo for reference, either)
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I happened to be going through New Years photos as I wrote this so here’s a photo of Max and his great grandma:
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Fartin shoes

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Sorry for the crappy focus. I was trying to take a photo without the vendor noticing… This was taken at a temporary vendor inside the new Big C in Sarakham. They were actually quite nice leather children’s shoes. I really want to know the story behind the brand, though.

Big C Mahasarakham

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In November 2008, Thai superstore Big C opened a branch store in Maha Sarakham, just a few minutes down the street from us. Life hasn’t been the same since, mostly in good ways since we pay less for more and no longer have to venture downtown to the small Tesco with shitty parking inside the SermThai department store. Also, there were certain things – such as sporting goods and bicycles – that were only sold at ridiculous markups at small stores until now, so watching said shops close up forever is satisfying on some very small, very human level. On the flip side, traffic on the main street in front of our house has increased greatly – sometimes making a U-turn in front of Big C is like sitting inside a supercollider and watching electrons whizz by.

Pu Yai Ban – Village Headman

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Do you see what I see?

Close up:
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Now there’s nothing remarkable about village headmen here. Every village has one, and there are presumably thousands of villages in this region alone. What’s remarkable is that (presumably) a village headman has taken it upon himself to advertise his position on his pickup.
I wondered about what kind of egotistical twat would have the nerve to do something so tasteless, so pointless, and so retarded… So I waited for him to return to his car for over twenty minutes. Sure enough: One self-important asshole in a pickup, not bothering to look before he pulled into traffic and almost crushing a passing biker, to go!