Entering the world - the buddist way

I always knew there will be times when I'm gonna have to close my eyes(mouth?) and say 'well, the bugger is half chinese...'

This is one of those.

Traditionally, Thai or Chinese kids(in Thailand) shave their babies head and EYEBROWS(!!!!) after they've passed the first month. S - Day is chosen carefully based on mom/dad/baby's chinese horoscope.

Ours turned out to be 14th of March...truly a good day, as Andrei was quiet as a puppet and slept through most of it.

After the first eyebrow...Mom managed to calm down / grab the camera.








And when he woke up...:))

I'm told this is the secret in acquiring one of those great dense Chinese buns and thick gorgeous eyebrows.

Being a parents is such a trial and error experience....You find something that works one day, and the next day you something else pops up or the same solution doesn't work anymore.

Take breastfeeding for instance...How the heck it comes so natural to all the other mammals but us?...read any baby book and you'll find out a list of 50 things that could go wrong. I always thought I'll be this cool mom and that all this stuff is just a matter of instinct. Took me about a month to actually learn to hold Andrei properly...
Then there's the problem of the actual milk...I thought: "Hey, bring the kiddo to the breast..job done!! It works for all other mammals." Not for human cubs! They need to get the rich sleep-inducing milk that comes after the poor kid has been suckling for at least 10 min/breast..Trouble is, human cubs are such sleepy heads..so if you let them fall asleep, they wake up within an hour screaming their hearts out for food, not to mention that the foremilk(the watery one) taken in excess causes gas like you can't believe!...Add it all up...these guys basically feed for 30 min - 1 hour at a time...7 times a day (now, before 9-10)..you do the math.

However, once you've figured it out, bfeeding is a great bonding experience and nothing beats 'liquid gold'.:)

Un Elefant

You realize guys, we are absolutely charmed with our bundle. If you are a parent yourself - you understand, if not - you'll get there!!! Same Same will swing somewhere between parenting and the occasional trip...

Until the summer, when we're packing our troubles and going to Romania, enjoy a video of our son. You'll also notice that I'm on a mission to get him at least bilingual. Ake is in charge of the Thai and the grandparents and chatting away in a mixed chinese-thai. I would be curious to know what he's thinking listening to all of us yapping in so many languages!!!

So, here it is, Andrei now 2 months and a half - still a very happy kid!