October 30, 2005
October 29, 2005
Winston's 3rd Tooth
Winston behaved horribly this past week. He was irritable, cranky and had problems sleeping. His erratic and grumpy sleep cycles was definitely the result of teething. We tried having him chew on green onions just like last time but this time he decided that he didn't like the taste so we had to give him Hyland's Teething Tablets and we even broke down and gave him Tylenol twice.
Winston never really cared for regular teethers or any cold/ice combo choosing instead to chew on blankets, my shoulder and yes, even my areola. He's been using his tiny bottom snaggleteeth to relieve the pain on his upper gums while he breastfeeds. It's slightly painful but much better than having to deal with a cranky baby.
The knobby, little bulges have been swelling under his gums for the past few days and finally today we noticed one big white spot where his top tooth will come out.
October 20, 2005
Sus intentos por gatear
En las últimas semanas Winston ha estado todo un monito. Ya esta en sus primeros intentos de gatear. Le encanta estar boca abajo y se vira a los dos lados con una rapidez que asombra. Cuando quiere alcanzar algún juguete se arrastra y gira su cuerpo en cualquier dirección. Muchas veces se frustra por que no logra alcanzar lo que quiere y termina enojado y rendido de tanto esfuerzo.
October 17, 2005
Winston se rie a carcajadas
Si le haces cosquillitas debajo de los bracitos (en las axilas) se rie a carcajadas.
October 14, 2005
Eating Squash
Winston is now eating solids once a day and has even starting taking the bottle. His favorite food so far is squash which amazingly is very tasty. It taste like fresh squash.
When we feed him with the bottle he wants to hold it with his feet! Yes, his feet. He brings them up and tries to keep the bottle in place without using his hands. As you can imagine this makes it much more difficult to get him to finish the bottle but it does look very cute.
October 13, 2005
October 11, 2005
click to enlarge
October 10, 2005
The Red String
We've gotten many questions about the red string that Winston wears around his wrist that I finally decided to write an entry.
In Mexican tradition babies wear the "Ojo de Venado" or Deer's Eye charm to protect them against the "evil eye." Typically the charm, a Velvet Bean, is strung on a red string and a holy Catholic saint print is applied to one side of the bean. Since we are not Catholic we only use the red string.
The evil eye belief is that a person can harm your baby simply by looking at him with admiration or jealousy and not touching him. Hispanic people know that when they praise a child, they must IMMEDIATELY defuse the threat by touching the child.
By the way, there is strong tendency to view blue-eyes people as bearers of the evil eye.
If interested, read about diagnosing and curing the evil eye
A mother takes her little toddler to town and someone sees the child and says, "Oh, how pretty she looks! She is just adorable." The admiring person may gaze overlong at the child. If the mother does not take an immediate pre-emptive step -- spitting onto the child, denying before God that the baby is attractive, or asking the person who praises the child to touch her or spit on her -- the evil eye then begins to operate. By the time the mother and child get home, the child is sick to her stomache and crying. She is flushed, sweaty, and may have diarrhoea. Soon she becomes dehydrated and may be very ill indeed. The mother takes her to a conventional doctor, but "nothing can be done." She finally calls in a local healer -- usually an older woman -- who diagnoses the true cause of the problem and then performs the cure.Sometime the evil eye is diagnosed from the circumstances: the child was well in the morning, was praised or gazed upon, began sweating and vomiting and the cause is clear. But most often the diagnosis and cure involve a complex series of rituals, which vary by culture. Water, oil, and melted wax -- liquids -- may play a part, or the ritual may center on an eye-shaped and liquid-filled natural object, the egg. Cures, when effected, are usually said to be dramatic, almost instantaneous.
In Eastern Europe, the evil eye is diagnosed by dropping charcoal, coal, or burnt match heads into a pan of water. If the coals float, the child has been given the evil eye.
In the Ukraine, melted wax may be dripped into holy water to diagnose spiritual diseases. If it splatters or sticks to the side of the bowl, the patient is suffering from the evil eye. Secret prayers known only to women are recited and the holy water is used to bathe the victim. The wax is reheated and this time when it is poured into the water, it sinks to the bottom in a solid lump, indicating that a cure has taken place.
In Greece, Mexico, and other places, holy water is given to the child to drink and/or drawn on the child in the form of a cross. If the remorseful perpetrator can be made to spit into the water before the child drinks it, so much the better. In order to avoid direct accusations of having caused such a calamity, a family member may stand outside the church when the supposed perpetrator attends and ask all who pass by to spit into a cup of holy water, thus embarrassing no one.
