A Few More For Good Measure

Screamy McScreamerson

We had a good week with Draidan. He was sleeping well and pretty much up for anything all week. So I decided to run a solo mission across the city to Andrew's house last night. I wanted Jenny to have a baby-free evening to recharge. He was in fine spirits until about one minute after Jenny left to go shopping. He then started wailing. After feeding, him changing him, feeding him again and burping him countless times, I decided to just make a run for it and take him to Andrew's anyways. He fell asleep immediately in the cab but upon arriving- started to get quite fussy again. Drai adores women though and luckily Sammi was there. As soon as he saw her, he calmed down and started cooing away to her. But eventually she had to get back to the thesis she was writing and he got angry again. He finally fell asleep on the cab ride back.

Then this morning was a nightmare. Jenny left for a few hours to teach a class. Again, the second she left, he awoke from his slumber and began howling. This time, with no women around to appease the beast, he carried on for almost the entire 3 hours. Only taking a break to eat a little and for a jaunt to the 7-11. (Which of course had women in it, so he was on his best behavior.) Even when he was eating he constantly was kicking and trying to stand up. (Yea, he is already trying to stand. And actually can for a little while if you lean him against something.)He isn't just crying- the noise that comes out of the little guys sounds like a sheep that has just been hit by napalm. It's horrible and I feel so helpless when he is doing it. I don't mind dirty diapers, puke, baths etc. but the screaming destroys me. I don't know how Lindsay and Kyle made it through that first year with Luke. After three hours of crying- I was almost ready to head off to the hospital for a vasectomy.

Finally, Jenny came home and he fell fast asleep. (Little jerk.) We then took him out for his first trip to the park in his new stroller. There were two women along for the trip, thus his insatiable need for the female persuasion was appeased - he didn't make a peep the entire afternoon. We are trying to get him used to being around lots of people and traveling about, so we dragged him to the exact opposite side of the city again tonight to have dinner with Uncle Mike. He was great the whole trip and he even let us make him a new outfit. I am terrified that he will be horrible on the flight to Canada. I am really dreading that flight. But perhaps with a couple more months of traveling in Taiwanese taxis he will not even bat an eye at air travel. A taxi ride in Taiwan is probably more turbulent than any flight would be. Moreover, there should be some cute stewardesses hanging about to keep him on his best behavior. We just can't fly KLM.
Their flight attendants are like mythical monsters! It's like being served by a shaved wookie. But I digress...

Baby Shower

Well, last Sunday was Draidan's baby shower and everything went very well. We had a good turn out and he was awesome. Drai is proving to be quite the social butterfly and really liked being passed around from friend to friend. After about three hours, he finally started to get a little fussy, so I tried to put him down for a nap but he didn't want to be away from everyone else and would cry when I would put him in the crib. So I dragged his vibrating chair into the living room with all the noisy adults and he went out like a light. We have been purposely trying to keep his nap times noisy so that he will be able to sleep through traveling and function in noisy environments well. I wake up at the slightest noise and don't want him to be a light sleeper. As it sucks.
We did his first doctor's check-up and shots. He has gained over a kilogram and grown 6cm in a month. He is starting to lose most of his hair and it seems to be growing back in much lighter. Some of it is even blond. Drai is also starting to babble and coo a lot. Which is really freaking cute.
He's already managed to do a push up as well. Which I didn't think one month-old babies were supposed to be able to do. I have a feeling he is going to be crawling about destroying the place in no time.

In other news, the weather is getting really freaking hot. Too hot for February. Last Thursday, it was 29 degrees at 9:00pm. It is supposed to get cold a get this week but I am skeptical.

Adventures in Baby Raising

Everything is going well here. Draidan is growing like a weed and things are starting to fall into routine day by day. Jenny started teaching privates again this week at our house. The only problem is that when she is teaching- is Drai's party time. So she was finding it impossible to teach and take care of him at the same time. She wanted to find a nanny to come and watch him while she was teaching. I wanted to support her with this but don't trust most Taiwanese in regards to my child, as most of what they say is completely different than everything I have read about children. Luckily, my good friend Nick's wife, Julie, who we have known for ages just lost her job due to their being no work for her company. She is an awesome mother and parents her daughter exactly how I want Draidan raised. So we offered her the gig and she accepted. So that is one less thing to worry about. Her daughter is very well behaved, incredibly social and really creative. I was so worried we would end up getting a nanny that plops our kid in front of the TV and then goes off to read gossip magazines.

Maybe some of you professional baby caregivers can chime in on some advice we have gotten lately. I think they are wrong but several Taiwanese moms have recommended the following.

1. Clean Drai's tongue. Do you do that? I can't find anything in the books about cleaning baby's tongues. But they say you need to do it every day.

2. Giving him water. I have read the opposite which said that you shouldn't give a baby water. But, they told us that if you give him 40cc of water, it is okay. I told them I read differently and they changed their answer to 20cc. When I showed them the paragraph that said not to give them water, they changed their answer to just a few drops.

What are your thoughts on this?

He is starting to smile a lot more now which is fun. We are having a baby shower for him this Sunday. I think we will have quite a house full as it seems there are at least 20 people coming.

Oh and we finally decided on his Chinese name. Which was actually one of the good fortune names, that was recommended by the fortune teller. It was really hard because Jenny's last name - Sang, is very rare. Not many people have it here. Sang is a kind of tree in Asia. So a lot of the names sounded weird with her surname- which we need to use for Taiwanese documents. Jenny narrowed the names down to three. Two of which I couldn't pronounce at all. So we went with "Sang Kai-Wei." It sounds like "sung- kye (like rye)- way" It means something like powerful, honest one.

Apparently, it is an uncommon name which makes me happy. Anyway, that's all for now folks.

3 Weeks Old

A Pound of Dirt

We took Draidan into the doctor yesterday because he was getting baby acne and red splotches all over his face. The doctor says he is fine but has really sensitive skin. So we can't use any soaps or creams on him. So hopefully we don't become the parents of the stinky kid. He has gained a kilogram in three weeks and now has a triple chin. Which keeps getting rashes because puke manages to get hidden in his fat folds. Jenny is doing well but has a bit of the baby blues. She gets pretty lonely during the day when I am at work. Mike came over again yesterday to keep her company. I told Mike, I will lend him Drai for a day so that he can go pick up women. I have discovered that Drai is a chick magnet. I can't get out of the 7-11 with him without being surrounded by cooing women. So you single guys, go knock up a girl, borrow the baby and get some women.

The cats, who I thought would totally freak out over the baby have been awesome and I think they are more friendly now than they were before. BaoBao never let anyone pet her and would hide under the bed in our room when people came over. Last night, she slept next to Mike and let him pet her for an hour. For those of you that don't know, BaoBao is Jenny's aunt.
I also just read in the newspaper that having pets in the house actually builds the immune system of children. That was good to read because half of the Taiwanese guests that come over tell us we shouldn't have cats around the baby. The article also said that eating dirt is actually good for kids. Which is something my papa Barry used to always say. I guess all the worms in dirt actually help your body immunize itself against future infections.

I was videoing Drai today and managed to capture his first baby babble on film. That is good news as I just read in the "What to Expect in the First Year" book, that babies who babble vowel sounds in the first month tend to be good at language later on in life. A few months from now he will most likely have a bigger vocabulary than Uncle Clay.

Everything else is going well. I have learned that a baby boy is always cocked (pardon the pun) and loaded when changing his diapers. He gets me almost every time and usually manages to pee all over his shirt when I am changing him too. Then he gets this satisfied grin on his face like he is messing with me on purpose. Yesterday, he did it four times.

And Nana finally got to see Drai on Skype today but she didn't have a camera yet. When Papa gets back from Mexico, we will get him on there, too.

I-Ching

Naming babies in Taiwan is quite an ordeal. The Taiwanese government insists that all babies have a Chinese name. But, you can't make up a Chinese name. It has to be an established name. Which, I guess is why everyone pretty much has the same names here. To help in the naming process, Taiwanese often go to fortune tellers to read the baby's I-Ching. Which is based on an oracle that forms a philosophy and divination based on the child's birth date, birth minute, lunar schedule etc.

Jenny's family went and got Drai's I-Ching done for him to help Jenny come up with a suitable and lucky Chinese name. She still hasn't decided yet. But his I-Ching was interesting. The fortune teller didn't know he was a mixer and didn't see a picture of him. They told us the following based on his numerology:
Personality:
Outgoing, talkative, loves to socialize, charming, hot-tempered (must get that from his mom,)bad tempered, sharp-tongued, independent, intelligent, stubborn (must get that from his mom,)likes to help others but doesn't like asking for help. Sharp, funny demeanor. Loyal and generous to family and friends.
Talents:
Business, farming, excellent style, verbal jousting, memorizing, womanizing, managing money (The fortune teller reiterated three times that he will be very good with women.)
Luck:
Not much
Body:
Big mouth, thick eyebrows and he needs to be careful with his arms and legs because they could be hurt easily. It says he will have a long and healthy life, though.

Kind of fun to read all of that. I think Jenny is worried about the "natural born lady-killer" tag. (Her words, not mine.) I, on the other hand think that is the best part! Lock up your daughters!