'The Tale of a Bad Father' or 'Baby's first Con'

So last month we attended SakuraCon in Seattle. It was nice to get out of the Tri-cities and relax. We also visited Uwajimaya(sp?) the asian market in Seattle and got a chance to cosplay. We cosplayed only for Friday and Saturday. Friday as Kenshin and Kaoru, with little Kenji. (that will be fun when he is a toddler and running around, while we scream at him is costume to stop mucking around*) Then on Saturday and Naruto and Hinata (time skip versions, and I don't have my orange pants done yet). We had to head home on Sunday.

Which brings us to 'The Tale of a Bad Father'. I took pictures of other cosplayers, but not much of my own little family. Not to mention we were unable to find Kenji's little knitted(croched?) Konoha symbol hat. So some time we will have to get him in that hat and have us dressed as Naruto and Hinata again, and take some pictures.

The new Hakama we got are nice, but they are bifurcated(fancy word for split down the middle, ie pants). Not that I dislike pants, but Hakama are hard to wear and then go to the bathroom. Undivided Hakama (ie skirt like) are much easier in that department. So I almost prefer our home-made ones.

I will most likely edit this post later to include a picture that I did take.

*If you don't get this then you have to know that Kenshin and Kaoru have a son named Kenji. So cosplaying as Kenshin and Kaoru and Kenji will be fun.

MTHFR

As part of being in a nerdy, geeky family Kenji will most likely confuse his grade school teachers. Lately the primary topic at my parents house (which we go to every Sunday for dinner) has revolved around a particular genetic defect. The defect or shall we call it abnormality is in the MTHFR gene. MTHFR standing for methyltratrahydrofolatereductase. And we also tend to bounce around words such as L-methylfolate, methylcobalamin, P5P, etc.

Now this will become most distressing to Kenji's teachers when Kenji is trying to explain the odd shots he has to get on a regular basis. For now he gets it through mom's milk and mom is on the shots.

Most people having read to this point are now asking what MTHFR deficiency means. Well it so happens we don't fully know. However several studies published and ongoing link it with Autism Spectrum Disorder, hereditary depression, hereditary migraines, fatigue, elevated homocystine levels (related to diabetes control and/or occurance). As I stated the research is only really picking up in the last few years.

On a personal level, I have at times been diagnosed with chronic depression, PLMS (periodic leg movement syndrome), and general fatigue. Being on the recommended treatment for MTHFR I have been able to stop all medications related to those problems. The treatment I am taking is methylcobalamin shots, or in simpler terms activated B12 vitamin. As active b12 is destroyed in the stomach lining[Edit: more like not absorbed than destroyed per se], and cannot be reliably absorbed through mucus membranes in quantity, it is administered by sub-cuntanious injection (like an insulin shot).

What is interesting is to note how this effects babies. As a baby I needed suppositories on a regular basis to keep me regular. Kenji exhibits this same problem of severe constipation. With the knowledge of MTHFR, which my wife and I have on both genes, we both take the shots. After receiving the shot, and subsequent feeding, our sun poops just fine. So we have increased the frequency and decreased the amount per shot, to help with that.

Now what I have mentioned here is tame compared to the bio-chem discussions at my parents, fueled by the fact my father is a medical doctor and my brother training to become one. Not to mention the fact we now have a lot of the extended family on the shots and a prescription vitamin supplement (MetaNX, contains l-methylfolate, P5P, and methylcobalamin). We also have been looking at other factors involved, and hope to prevent issues later because of it.

It is being studied to see if autism is caused by a combination of the MTHFR gene defect with mercury and other heavy metal poisoning. Sadly immunizations given to children over the age of 3 still contain mercury, and so do most flu vaccines. The MMR vaccine administered to children is possibly the cause of some cases of intestinal disbiosis (leaky gut syndrome) in people with the MTHFR defect.

NOTE: I am not a doctor nor do I recommend anything or pretend to be an expert, but it is interesting because we are so technical in my family. I think it will be funny and frustrating that my son will most likely tell his teachers these things and they will assume he is making them up or lying. Having been told by adults when I was young that Koalas don't have pouches after I told them that they do, they assumed me lying or making things up. It is quite infuriating.

Lullaby

So what are lullaby's anyway, something to sing to calm or entertain a child.

I am apparently not very good at them, while I can recognize them when people sing them, I have the hardest time remembering one to sing in the middle of the night.

One song my father used to sing to me was San Toki (sp). It is Korean, and because of my unfamiliarity with Korean I will not attempt to type it in Korean letters. But here is how I recall it. Pardon my romanization.

San Toki Toki ya (bunny fingers aka peace sign)
O dido kanen ya (move bunny back and forth)
Gonshu Gonshu dimyon so (hop up and down then run around)
O did kanen ya (go back to swaying the bunny)

Basically it is about a bunny and you are asking where is is going, he is just jumping and running around. Not really a lullaby but a fun kids song. I will need to clarify the translation and make sure my memory is accurate as to how it went. But how is that, odd white guy remembering korean kid's songs. (My father went on an ecclesiastical mission to Korea when he was young, that is why a farmer turned doctor born in Idaho knows korean)

So now I just need to learn a bigger variety of songs.

Edit: I should have checked more before starting the post. I did find an online reference to Santoki.

Here it is from the wikipedia article. I never knew there was a second verse. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santoki)

First Verse:
산토끼 토끼야 어디를 가느냐
깡총깡총 뛰면서 어디를 가느냐
Second Verse:
산고개 고개를 나혼자 넘어서
토실토실 알밤을 주워서 올테야

Transliterated

First Verse:
San-toki, toki-ya
Uh-dee-reul gah-neu-nyah?
Kang-choong, kang-choong tee-myun-suh
Uh-dee-reul gah-neu-nyah?
Second Verse:
San-go-gae go-gae-reul
Nah-hon-jah nuhm-uh-suh
to-shil to-shil ahl-bahm-eul
Joo-wuh-suh ol-tae-yah

Busy Busy

Ok finally I am getting to post. For now pictures will be updated most frequently on kenjiralwlins.com but the blogging aspect will be done here and I will be removing the lists from kenjirawlins.com and be redirecting here for blog content. Now all I need to do is fix up the code on the blogger site.

Now in more interesting side notes, on the front page of kenjirawlins.com there is a picture with a hat, an outfit, and a pink blanket. For those visiting Super Fan Parents here is the meaning behind each.

Hat: Leaf village symbol from Naruto
Outfit: Sent by a friend we made at Anime Expo, because it was a baby kimono.
Blanket: So it's pink, my wife is likened to Kaoru(sp) from Kenshin and Kaoru is likened to a tanuki(raccoon dog) hence the raccoon fabric was too much to pass up. (We have friend who we liken to Misao the weasel)

So there you have the nerdy meanings behind the objects.

Baby is Born

Kenji Alphonse Rawlins was born on October 25th 2007 at 15:55 PDT at Kadlec Medical Center in Richland Washington. Kenji weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long.

Mom and Baby are doing well.

What's in a name, a nose by anyother name could still smell

So why Kenji Alphonse Rawlins?

Rawlins is easy: It is our last name.

Kenji Alphonse, because we liked it.

Kenji is Japanese in origin, and has a variety of meanings depending on the Kanji used to represent it. The -ji was in the past used often for the second son, -ji being one of the alternate readings of the kanji meaning two. Ken- and -ji can be any number of things. Below are some examples. Please note that you must have unicode support to view these. Macs should come with that support, Windows machines will need the asian language support files installed, and Linux will depend on the distribution.

So here are the various Japanese readings:

Katakana:　ケンジ
Hiragana:　けんじ
Kanji: a few variations that are known to be used as name Kanji
　健二: ken-strength or persistence -ji two (film director, actor)
　賢二: ken- clever or wise -ji two (popular Seiyu)
　賢治: ken- clever or wise -ji an era (known composer, poet)
　健児: ken-strength or persistence -ji newborn (another Seiyu)
　憲次: ken- law -ji next (known composer)
Other Combinations, not known to be used in names, but with correct readings. These would need to be viewed by someone fluent in Japanese and with a good knowledge of name kanji and possible connotations.

We picked this one, and you can see it on the top of baby site kenjirawlins.com.

健児

Blogging a new baby

Chinese Ink
Originally uploaded by Nathanael.Archer

So now you have it. I can post pictures fairly easily if it is one picture per post. This is a cool picture of ink sticks. Because we are doing something unusual and giving our white child an asian name, I figured this would be appropriate.

This blog is to detail the silliness of two fans and their work to raise a child. Heidi and I were married two years ago and now are going to have a child. So how do two star wars, anime, & manga fans raise a child and try to "settle down"? We don't know either.

So this will detail everything from baby's first cosplay and baby's first con all the way to how do you decorate so family and friends don't think you are living like a teenager. (Lets face it, most anime wallscrolls are not living room material)

In my next post I will re-post what is on the baby website kenjirawlins.com about why we went with the name and how to spell it in romanji, katakana, and kanji. (hopefully the japanese characters will show up correctly)