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).
Category: Photos
A Week Without Updates
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
The Five Steps of Monkey (props to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross)
DENIAL:
ANGER:
BARGAINING:
DEPRESSION:
ACCEPTANCE:
Let’s Have Our Piece of Third World Cake! (and eat it, too!)
Third World Cake(TM) Checklist:
- Pseudo-trademarked jelly/frosting entities (Mykkie and Myni) – check!
- Indestructible sugar frosting – checkcheck!
- Red jelly blobs in place of actual fake cherries – checkcheckcheck!
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.
Max & Jak’s Monkey
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.”
Effluvian Cycle
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!
I CAN HAS PICNIC?
OK. I’ve gotten all the LOLcats-babyblogging out of my system, I think.
Went Shopping for a Car Seat…
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.
Dub Thee Max
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?