Baby Baldy

Ramadan Mubarak to everyone!

We had an interesting weekend back at my parents' house. Saturday morning my mom and dad made breakfast as usual, but then whipped out the trimmer and insisted on shaving my son's head.

A little background: Muslim tradition dictates that a baby should have his/her first haircut within a month of his/her birth, and that the hair's weight in silver should be donated to charity. Armaan's hair weighed less than an ounce, and an ounce of silver is going for $17 on the current market, so we are supposed to donate $17 to someone in need. This is called the aqiqa. Additionally, the parents are supposed to slaughter a goat and donate the meat to those in need. Normally, people just throw a diner party and serve the meat at that time.

I wasn't really keen on shaving his head. I would rather give the money and forget about the hair business. But mom and dad insisted, and so over eggs and paratas, I relented. Armaan was very good about the whole mess, and was quiet as a mouse until the very end when his patience ran thin. Then he started to whine a little bit.

I think that shaving his head makes his face look bigger. Hidden under that awning of dark black feathery hair, his face took on a mousey quality. Now that he resembles Kojak, he looks slightly bigger.

Aside from the aqiqa, Armaan had time to brush up on his projectile vomit skills. Sunday morning, he basted his grandpa with second hand formula, then after he got cleaned up, peed on him in mid-diaper change. He repeated said procedure that evening when I was at the park behind mom and dad's house for a picnic. I didn't even get to take a bite of barbecue chicken when M called and said I needed to come home STAT. He had barfed all over my little brother's bed, and himself, which mandated a bath. After the bath, I took him to my other brother's bed (little brother had banned his nephew from the bed for the rest of the evening) and before I could take his towel off, Armaan had peed on the bed. GOOD GRIEF.

Tonight we are going to venture off into the Tenderloin for dinner. Armaan's first visit to the TL aka Crack Addicts R Us. My mom and dad would kill me if they knew we were going to take their first born grandson to the TL, thai food or not. Time to test out the Snugli in the field! I;m kinda excited. =)