Baptism, May 2007

On the Feast of the Ascension, May 20th, 2007 at 12:00 noon, we had the baptism ceremony for our son, Antonio Vachirawit Navarro. The ceremony was held at the Church of the Holy Redeemer, here in Bangkok, Thailand.



Here we are standing for the baptism, with Little Nio's godparents, Ruthie Lasa and Donal Coyne. Ruthie is the wife of my fraternity brother, Sisay Lasa, who was very kind to help out as the photographer for this memorable event. Donal is the managing partner of Steven Leach + Associates here in Bangkok, the company I work for. He is my boss, and my friend.



My wife, Kannitha, who is a Buddhist, tentatively makes the sign of the cross on Little Nio's forehead. Everyone who was there to witness his baptism was asked for a blessing by making the sign of the cross for him.



Here's Donal's wife, Khun Lek making the sign of the cross.



Never having been parents before, we both had to follow the script, reading out our lines and making sure we got things right.



Even good Irish Catholics like Donal had to make sure that he got his lines right. I think that we made excellent choices in inviting both Donal and Ruthie to stand as Little Nio's godparents.



Now comes the part with the water... where Nio starts freaking out.



Then the bit with the holy oil and chrism... and even more freaking out.



Then the part where he symbolically dons the white vestments, which Donal helps keep on him.



And then we have the part where a candle is lit to symbolize the light of his faith as a new born Christian... and a bit more freaking out.



This is a photograph with the parents and godparents. From left-to-right, Khun Lek (Donal's wife), Nio's father and mother (that would be me and my wife, Kanittha), the godfather Donal, and the godmother Ruthie carrying Nio, and finally, Sisay (the husband of Ruthie).



Now here's a group photograph of everyone who was able to attend.

From left-to-right, our very good friend Gerald Gonzalez, then Khun Ja Sirisamphan (daughter of Khun Chira), Donal Coyne, myself, Kanittha, Little Nio, Father Michael Picharn, Ruthie Lasa, and our friend Khun Chira Sirisamphan. Sisay Lasa was on the other side of the camera taking this photograph for us. Unfortunately, the daughter of Sisay and Ruthie, Cristel, who was also there was too shy to join us for this photo.

After the mass and the baptism, we all went together to have a long enjoyable lunch at Coffee Beans by Dao, which is very near the Church of the Holy Redeemer.



While everyone else is enjoying the lunch, Little Nio gets some quiet time with his wonderful fairy godmother, Tita Gerald. He's wearing a gold bracelet and a small gold crucifix. The bracelet was a gift from Kenny Marshall and the crucifix from my colleague at work, Khun Shanasit Thirakomen. You can see that Little Nio is all tired out and very happy to nap in the arms of Gerald.

New Faces, May 2007

Little Nio is out and meeting new people!



We went out to have a Sunday lunch over at Coffee Beans by Dao with my good friend, Trevor and his girlfriend, Khun Nok. Trevor is my financial advisor and has been helping me manage a very tiny portfolio that I started for our family. Here's Nio right at home with his new Auntie Nok.



And here he is with his big Uncle Trevor.



Not all of Little Nio's new friends are a lot bigger than he is, he already has started making acquaintances more his own age. Here he is with Nong Pet, the son of one of my wife's friends, Khun Cake. (Don't ask me why she's named "Cake"... but my wife has another friend named "Gift" as well. Must be some kind of a party theme.)



Little Nio is two and a half months old in this photo and Nong Pet is almost nine months old here. Either our son is big for his age, or the other kid is a bit tiny for his. Or it could be foreshortening in perspective? Or maybe the broad horizontal stripes just make him look fat?



From left-to-right, we have my wife, Kanittha carrying Little Nio, then my sister-in-law, Khun Kut in the middle, and then finally Khun Cake and her son, Nong Pet. They came over to visit with us.



An even smaller friend Little Nio has got is this stuffed toy dog we've named "Blue". No shortage of imagination in the naming department.

Aside from the new faces there is at least one new place that Little Nio absolutely enjoys. This was handmade specially for him by my father-in-law, and brought down 12-hours by pick-up truck from Sakhon Nakorn all disassembled.



It's like a baby hammock, which in the Filipino vernacular is known as a duyan.

Don't click on that duyan link unless you really want to know more about a traditional swing hammock made out of rattan. The poor MIDI rendition of Freddie Aguilar's "Anak" on that site almost drove me insane.

This version made for Nio is made with a simple bolt of soft fabric, but all the supports are self-contained so we didn't have to look for any posts to hang it to. And the awesome thing about it is that it is fairly easy to move from room to room. The entire piece was lovingly constructed by Nio's maternal grandfather.



Here's Little Nio with his Daddy, trying on a new look, accessorizing with a hat. Notice the resemblance?





We haven't put it to a vote yet, but it is still undecided on whether or not the outfit works better with or without the hat. Personally, I tend to favor sans accessories.



Any resemblance on this last photograph is unintentional.

Expressions, May 2007

So here we are approaching Nio's third month... and what have we learned?

That Little Nio enjoys his outfits... specially when we are talking about cool pirate outfits that come with excellent details on the derriere.







We've learned that in less than a month, Little Nio can nearly double his weight. Have a look at how he's filled out in this brown outfit.



We've also learned that while Little Nio enjoys bathtime with his Daddy, he doesn't take too kindly to being scrubbed hard down in the nether regions, south of the border.



We also know that Little Nio has hit an important milestone in his mobility — by being able to lift up his own neck while lying on his belly.





He's come a long way with a little help from Mommy, and lots of love too.



Here he is taking a quick nap on his Mommy's shoulder.

We've also been incredibly amazed at the range of expressions Antonio has developed.



















We're going to be posting more of these for you all very soon.

Daily Schedule, April 2007

So what exactly constitues a daily schedule for a growing baby boy? We took time to interview Little Nio to find out exactly what it is he does on a daily basis. The schedule is a wee bit flexible but it pretty much stays the same.

The day starts early with a bottle feeding at around 3:00 AM in the middle of the night. Nio's mother is the one that usually wakes up to take care of this. Nio's father sleeps through this first main event like a rock. At around 7:00 AM, Nio wakes up and requests for another feeding in his unique outspoken manner.



By around 10:00 AM, Little Nio is having a great bath in his bathtub, complete with a special foam liner that prevents any slipping in his tiny blue tub. He used to get upset getting into the water, but lately he gets upset about getting out of the water.



Right after changing, Little Nio listens to a bit of classical music for about an hour or two and then he spends time with his mommy and his auntie, Pa Kut. She is the older half-sister of my wife, who has come to stay with us and spend time taking very special care of Little Nio.



So, from around 12:00 NN noon time till about 3:00 PM in the afternoon, Little Nio spends quality time "freaking out". At least that's what my wife calls his fits of bawling, eating and passing out. This is usually punctuated by a diaper change somewhere towards the end of that intense activity period.

You can see from these more recent photographs that Little Nio has put on a bit of weight and his skin has become fair and pale. A strong, healty, handsome baby with quite a bit of character.



At around 5:00 PM, Little Nio gets his evening bath and then he spends time with his mom knocking back a few more bottles of milk. Sometimes he gets breastmilk, sometimes he gets an infant formula called "Dumex".



Here he with his mommy, looking a bit wired in his Pirate themed outfit. Shortly after this photo was taken, Nio decided to put in some solid "freaking out" time ending rather abruptly with a major diaper incident. Then he passes out for an hour or two, waking up at around 9:00 PM for another bottle.



Then at around 11:00 PM, Little Nio decides to fall off to sleep after finishing off yet another bottle or three... only to wake up again at around 1:00 AM in the morning to start the whole cycle again.

Travel Gear, April 2007

Yes, we've managed to get matching outfits. It isn't bad enough that the poor kid inherts most of his features from my side of the family, but he's stuck with the influence of bad fashion sense to boot.



The only thing though is that I don't get to wear light blue gloves and my shirt doesn't have three snaps at the crotch. Seriously though, there's nothing wrong with having matching light grey shirts.



Antonio all locked in safe in his travel basket with his little stuffed toy, "Blue". He's got a really cool pillow over his head that helps keep his head propped up preventing it from rolling around. I think we purchased that from "Le Pétit Pumm" over at Siam Paragon. His incredible basket locks in securely to both a base in the car and his heavy duty trolley... and it helps us to create opportunities for travel and adventure.



After his pediatrician's appointment, we took a long detour to visit the office so he could say "hello" to everyone. Unfortunately, he slept through most of the visit. He seems to sleep very well when there are crowds and lots of things going on. Here he is surrounded by some of my colleagues at the office. From left-to-right — Khun Jeab is crouched down in front, then Khun Puen, Khun Ros, Khun Pair, then my wife Kanittha, beside her is Khun Parn and then my friend, Khun Jae. Antonio looks very happy to be surrounded by all these ladies.



Part of all his travel adventures to date include a brief visit to the newly renovated ZEN department store, which is part of the enormous Central World shopping complex.



Here we all are at Iberry at La Villa, very near to our apartment, with one of our very good friends, Tata Montilla — Little Nio's "Tito Tata". I know that I look a bit oversized in the photo, but that's just perspective making everyone in the back of the shot look small. I think. All the sherbets and gellatos are finished, but we're bound to come back for more. Definitely sometime in the future Nio will be enjoying a sherbet with us.



Late at night my wife, Kanittha, snuck in to snap this photo of myself and Nio fast asleep together. It's not the most flattering photograph in the world, but she laughed herself silly when she pointed out how much we looked alike. Again, the slight double chin there is really an odd positioning of the camera and gravity being unkind. Besides if I really have put on a bit of weight I only have my wife to blame.