Every guy needs a castle.  This is Baby's.  He's got his buddies Totoro and Pooh, he's got his remote control (that's a real one we no longer use with the batteries taken out), and he's got his "laptop" (a tree toy that came with his high chair).  What else does a guy need?  I bought this little tent from Ikea years ago for the beach.  I just rediscovered it in my closet and decided to set it up for Baby, which was the actual intended use of the tent! :-)  As for Toby, does he miss his castle?  He's just glad that there's something else to occupy Baby's time!

Baby was at home from daycare for three days due to a mysterious case of diarrhea after every milk intake.  This started one day out of the blues, conincidentally as his top front tooth broke through the gums. We had done nothing different, didn't introduce any new foods nor change his routine.  No other baby in his daycare had the problem.  I took Baby to the pediatrician and he believed it to be a mild case of the stomach flu, though nothing out of the ordinary was found in Baby's stool sample.  Baby never had any fever nor vomiting.  He never lost his appetite for solids or milk.  I ended up cutting his milk intake in half and adding more solids into his diet for four days.  I then slowly increased his milk intake as his diarrhea subsides.  

So the verdict is still out, does teething cause diarrhea?  Or maybe the fact that Baby is teething causes him to put more junk into his mouth making him more vulnerable to stomach virus?  Mr. BAW also pointed out that maybe because the tooth broke the gum and that allowed more germs to enter the body.  Baby didn't have any problems with the bottom teeth, but they were less uncomfortable for him when those came out.   Another theory states that with teething, there's an increase of saliva production which babies swallow.  The saliva in the intestines causes diarrhea.  But more pediatricians are non-believers of the teething-diarrhea connection.  Hm...the mystery remains unsolved.  

Today I finally got to experience a true LA invention!!  My co-workers and I got to taste food from the real Kogi Truck!  If you are not from LA then you may not have heard of this, but the Kogi Truck is the hottest food truck in town.  They are a Korea-Mexican fusion food truck.  They make Korean BBQ beef tacos, kimchi quesadillas, and even Korean BBQ beef burritos.  They have been all the rage in LA for the past year.  There are only 5 real Kogi Trucks and they service all of LA.  There are a few places that the trucks regularly visits, like Downtown LA.  Other places will get an occasional visit from the trucks depending on their schedules.  Apparently, one can follow the food trucks on Twitter or see their schedules on their website.  But thankfully, I have some co-workers to tell me when the truck makes a visit to our neighborhood!  

Unfortunately for me, I had a meeting to attend when the Kogi Truck made it's way to our area.  But my awsome co-workers were nice enough to meet up with Mr. BAW (he works nearby too) and brought back some food for me!  The food is very affordable, $2 for a taco and around $5 for a burrito.  I got a tofu taco, a spicy pork taco, and a BBQ beef taco.  My favorite is the tofu taco.  I was not brave enough to try the kimchi quesadilla.  

Apparently, my co-workers and Mr. BAW had quite an adventure trying to catch the Kogi Truck.  They first had to drive to the truck since it was about a mile away from our offices.  Then, they couldn't find a parking spot near the truck so Mr. BAW got out of the car to get in line (there were tons of people also stalking the truck) while the others try to find parking.  Then the Kogi Truck got banished by Boeing security because the truck parked in a red zone.  So Mr. BAW and about 40 other people had to follow the truck on foot for a couple of blocks until the truck found a place to stop.  I can only imagine all these people hitting the streets chasing after a food truck!   Too bad I was stuck in a meeting! :-(

Sorry for the lack of blogging, but the lack of sleep has gotten to me lately.  Baby's two top front teeth are coming out and it's causing him to wake up at least twice a night.  Each time he wakes, it would take me at least an hour to put him back to sleep.  His top teeth have broken through and I can sometimes hear him bite.  Before this, Baby used to sleep through the night from 7pm to 5 or 6 am.  When he did wake up I'd be able to give him a bottle and put him back into the crib in less than 15 minutes.  Now his gums are clearly bugging him and it probably makes it uncomfortable for him to suck on his fingers, a way for him to get back to sleep quickly.  

As for me, I get two, maybe three hours of straight sleep each night if I'm lucky.  Broken sleep lasting about an hour each leg just doesn't satisfy.  I am exhausted during the day at work.  I can't wait til the top teeth come out completely.  He didn't have this much trouble with the two bottom teeth.  

By the way, nature has not caught up to human life span increases in the past few hundred years.  The reason kids lose their baby teeth at around 10-12 years old was probably because the average life span was 20 years.  It would make sense to replace our teeth half way through life.  But now that the typical life span of a person is well into our 80's, we really need a set of new teeth at around 40 years old.  Can you imagine 40 year old men and women walking around with missing front teeth? :-)  Yes, I often think about these things at 3am trying to rock Baby back to sleep.