Quite predictably, the long car ride to and from Bangkok was not appreciated by either baby, which they were quite vocal about. This was a kind of test run; do we really want to unleash these two on a plane full of innocents for the cumulative nineteen or so hours it takes to get back to Cali (w/one stopover)? The answer might just be children’s cold medicine…
Mina’s birth abroad has been duly reported, and her passport is in the works. Legally, she’s not a citizen exactly but has all the same rights as a citizen when she gets the passport. Say what? Yeah, it’s kind of a funny thing (though not half as funny as finding out that there is a Thai way of counting months for the Chinese zodiac and that Mina is a Tiger like me instead of an Ox because she was born in December) that way. I asked the vice consul to explain better what a non-citizen who bears all the rights (and responsibilities) of a citizen is, but even she didn’t know, so hey, that’s some pedantic shit right there.
Bangkok was hot and muggy as ever, and it was a relief to get back home. It’s hotter here, but it’s kind of a clean heat – Bangkok pollution just has a way of working itself into every pore and just making you sticky and gross. Plus, the scourge of mosquitoes in our room was epic. They attacked Max and I until Nam and I just got fed up with it and turned on all the lights and went medieval on their asses. It was like a Tarantino scene because I kept having to use various tools to get at these mosquitoes hiding in different places – a rolled-up newspaper to bat one off the ceiling, and a pillow to smash on in a headboard groove. One even got inside Mina’s portable framed mosquito net and bit her cheek, which woke her up, too.
Itchy, screaming babies at 3 in the morning sucks hard. So getting payback against the insect kingdom in general felt really good, and after we devoted twenty minutes to smashing every bug in the room, we fell asleep again and had no more problems. Up until that though, I’ve never seen mosquitoes so voracious. We had the AC and two floor fans pointed at Max and the bastards were still getting through to torture him.
Category: Oh, baby!
ippon demo ninjin
Max is a little less enthused by this than I am, but I found the greatest song for learning counting (and introducing the concept of counters) in Japanese this week:
It’s just a great song, really. I hereby declare this a Cosmic Buddha reunion number.
There was apparently some fluff about this song being switched to the A-side when the album was repressed, so they repressed again as it originally was, on the B-side. The thing is, it seems this song was originally (released in 1975) not very popular and the A-side song that became a hit, when compared now, sounds really boring: ?????????.
//////////////// LYRICS //////////////////
1 ?????? ????
2 ????? ????
3 ?????? ???
4 ????? ????
5 ????? ????
6 ????? ???????
7 ?????? ??
8 ?????? ???
9 ??????? ????
10 ?????? ???
??? ???? ???? ???
???? ???? ???????
?? ??? ????
1 ?????? ????
2 ????? ????
3 ?????? ???
4 ????? ????
5 ????? ????
6 ????? ???????
7 ?????? ??
8 ?????? ???
9 ??????? ????
10 ?????? ???
???? ??? ???? ???
??? ??? ????
???? ????? ????
////////////////
Language notes:
Max will turn two on April 18, and right now the majority of what he speaks is Thai, followed by English, and then just a bit of Japanese. Some people worried about it being a problem for him, but I think they basically underestimate the learning capacity of children.
So far, there’s been no problems and his Thai pronunciation is already much better than mine. The nanny is careful to speak mostly standard Thai around the babies, so that’s covered as well (otherwise they’d basically be learning to speak Laotian – we are in an area (Issan or NE region) very close to Laos regarding language and culture as well as geography).
Monterey Bay Aquarium Dinner Set
…for the discerning toddler.
Mina chanbo
This was a few weeks ago, when she still wasn’t very cute at all.
max on the wall
Those are newfangled, lightweight building blocks made of some porous, anechoic material (I yelled at ’em and they didn’t answer back.). They’re predictably better at insulating, but much weaker than good old red bricks – they’re only used for top story walls on a two story houses (or everywhere on a single story).
Mina has peed on me four times today
The good news is, we’re saving heaps on disposable diapers. Also, baby pee is good luck (in many of the obscure cultures flourishing, chiefly, in my head).
baby update via chat (i am sooo lazy edition)
me: whats up
M: yo you on skype?
me: nah, I’m at work
M: you suck!
me: next time we skype you’ll freak out though
M: i want to see the baby!!!!!!!!
me: mina can talk now
M: and the max!!!!!!!!
wtf
me: not with words but with cooing and gurgling
M: are you serious?
me: yeah she’s a trip
i just dropped off max at school
i just realized that we sent him to school a lot earlier than they do in the states
M: um YEAH
me: but there was nothing really that rushed about it
he was bored of being with us all day
i even stopped teaching extra classes to be with him all the time
but it had the opposite effect
he’s not even very outgoing; he just needs different stimulation all the time
M: i cant wait to take him to chuck e cheese
me: I’m going to enroll him in the preschool on my uni’s campus from april
he will be three minutes walk away from my office
M: that will be cool…you can go visit him on breaks
me: haha you’D never guess how disruptive parent visits are
they either cry because they miss you or becuase they don’t wnt you to go again
M: well, you can go spy on him then
me: yeah thats more like it
he’s picked up so many habits from his classmates tho
M: does he cuss?
me: now he talks nonstop when hes in the mood
M: bite?
hahah
me: no he doesnt cuss yet and i’m trying to watch my mouth around hm
M: good luck with that
me: he doesn’t bite anymore but he has power in his slaps now
M: i wish they were here sooooooo bad
me: thats what they do all day i guess is slap each other and take away toys from each other and stuff
M: yeah, sounds like little kids
me: the thing is, nam won’t spank him very hard so he thinks its a game when she says no and tries to punish him
its kinda funny… she slaps his hand or something and he gets this crazed look in his eyes like IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?
M: damn dude
and then you have to step in?
are you good cop or bad cop?
me: and then i have to spank him or talk to him in an angry voice and he melts and wants mommy and the tears start flowing…
me and nam?
what do you think?
the thing is, good cop bad cop doesn’t really work with kids that well in the long run
M: yeah are you the good one or the bad
me: well with max im bad cop
for sure
maybe with mina it will be opposite
the thing is, good cop bad cop doesn’t work unless you use bad cop first… but with kids, the parent closest is the first to go, so set roles are impractical
M: true
i think you will be different with mina too
me: yeah nam is already kind of irritated when i hold her so much and whatnot
“she’ll expect to be held all the time” and whatnot
and actually, that already happened so… my bad, i guess
who knew i would be good at good cop
bad at good cop?
M: well shes
a cutie pie, i dont blame you
me: she gets so angry when you lay her down
she wants to sit up, but she can’t support herself sitting upright yet
M: she’s feisty i like it
me: i prop her up on the sofa and she slides down into a reclined position, clawing at the air furiously with all four limbs to upright herself,
M: awwwww
over yonder
Max in the sandlot near home. Taken with Samsung J700 phone (crappy camera BTW).
serious growth
Mina could prop herself up before she was two months old… She could turn herself over as well, but only kinda by accident. This morning, she almost moved herself off the bed. She can see across the room, recognizes faces, and talks to you in long spurts when she’s so inclined… Other times, she wants to be held up so she can walk across the room.
She’ll be three months old on Saturday.