Category: Oh, baby!

Recent Baby Updates

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After I returned home from my uni’s “International Camp” last Thursday I was surprised to find the boy hadn’t waited for me to pass some milestones:

  • His first tooth came out (lower left incisor). I found this out when he grabbed my finger and bit down on it. Hard.
  • He now fits into the white baby Nikes (pictured above) cousin Kana gave me in Japan almost ten years ago as a birthday present (Her simple explanation: “You and Nam should make a baby.”). Somebody in Nara please pass this factoid on to Kana.
  • He can now laugh properly but prefers to do this wheezing, gacking chuckle kinda thing that’s both disturbing and hilarious. He can carry on with this sound for several seconds and it somewhat resembles a baby pterodactyl call.
  • He now holds out both hands when he wants me to pull him to his feet and stiffens his neck in anticipation.
  • He has almost grown out of size S Mammypoko diapers (he previously wore size Newborn and will be moving up to size M soon).
  • I saved the most important milestone for last (I wasn’t even aware this was humanly possible): He can fart, belch, and cough at the same time, with the hiccups!

Disposable Diapers vs Cloth: Carbon Footprint

We did the cloth diaper thing for a while and I was happy to do my own little part for the environment, but as soon as I realized how poorly cloth diapers performed compared to disposables, we switched. Now it seems that using cloth nappies might not be as environmentally friendly (in regards to greenhouse gas emissions) as everybody assumed: Blow to image of ‘green’ reusable nappy

“A government report that found old-fashioned reusable nappies damage the environment more than disposables has been hushed up because ministers are embarrassed by its findings…
…The report found that while disposable nappies used over 2½ years would have a global warming , impact of 550kg of CO2 reusable nappies produced 570kg of CO2 on average. But if parents used tumble dryers and washed the reusable nappies at 90C, the impact could spiral to . 993kg of CO2 A Defra spokesman said the government was shelving plans for future research on nappies.”


I guess the thing to remember is that the carbon footprint is only a part of the total environmental impact.