Uhm, Actually, Daniel is a Boy!
March 16, 2009 by Althea Tan
Filed under All Blogs, Daniel's first year
Daniel was born with naturally beautiful hair. In short, he was not bald. At St Lukes where I gave birth, we was an instant heartthrob. I remember the enthusiasm in my OB’s face when she announced, “Your son is very handsome!” and followed it up with, “How did you, two, do that?”
Uh, because he’s our son? I almost rolled my eyes.
Daniel playing with Daddy
Daniel at St Lukes' Nursery
At the nursery, people gave extra attention to how hairy he was. Their incessant remark about his hair made me realize that my son’s hair was (still is) a great asset.
I should say that Daniel is an amalgamation of our best features. He has always been an attention-getter. People cannot help but come up to him– either to hold him or pinch his chubby cheeks, even when he was just a baby.
Daniel's first day at home
We were itching to cut Daniel’s hair as soon as he turned 4-months-old. My husband had been prodding me that we should cut his hair, ASAP. But, there is a belief in the Filipino culture that we have to patiently wait until his first birthday before we bring him to the barber shop or salon. The rule of the thumb is, never ever cut the baby’s hair before he turns 1-year-old or else he’ll be very sickly. In the Filipino community, no mother ever attempted to defy this!
So, to avoid criticisms and to avoid being branded as sun-worshippers (how ironic is that?), we opted to leave Daniel’s hair as it is. To prevent his hair from covering his face, we tied them with scrunchie. As days passed and as his hair grew longer, his first ever haircut was becoming more momentous. Yes, I chronicled every minute of his first haircut!
As a result of this conformity, we always had to exert extra effort to correct people when pronouncing Daniel’s name.
“Dan-yel. You know, as in Daniel Craig of James Bond and Daniel Radcliff of Harry Potter.”
“Ahhh, ok. Dan-yel. Come here, Dey-nielle!”
That’s not all, we received comments like:
“Oh what a beautiful daughter you have!”
“Hi baby girl, you’re so cute!”
“Look at their baby girl, so pretty!”
“Now that I see in your records that this baby is indeed your daughter, she is now a US citizen.” (This was the comment by the US consul, when we submitted Daniel’s application for US citizenship. )
Ad infinitum.
We always had to correct everybody, “Uhm, Actually, Daniel is a boy, that’s why we make sure his wears blue or green all the time.” But I guess people didn’t get it at all!
Daniel at Intercon Hotel (7-month-old)
Of course, Daniel didn’t know that his parents had to constantly remind the whole world that he’s a boy. It was a pain in the neck to repeat ourselves all the time. We knew there was only one thing to prevent this: to cut his hair short. But we try not to offend people and the culture although it doesn’t really make sense.
Sometimes my husband and I have reason to believe that we are indeed selfless human beings.
Gayle on Wed, 18th Mar 2009 6:29 am
Your baby is so cute. I know how it is about the filipino belief about not cutting hair till their one. My sons were blessed with alot of hair too. Some say it was because of the balut (duck egg) I ate while pregnant hehe. Anyways I enjoyed reading your blog and I was wondering if you would like to link exchange with my site mommy-kisses.com. you can visit it and let me know. take care.
desperateblogger on Thu, 19th Mar 2009 11:03 am
your son is so cute! i guess you have a heartthrob in the making. st. lukes’ is also “my” hospital.
i’ve linked you. =)
melissa on Fri, 20th Mar 2009 1:43 am
I loved you site. You have a fabulous layout! Your little one is such a cutie. I look forward to reading your other posts.
Maureen on Sat, 21st Mar 2009 7:11 am
Thanks for visiting my blog. I added you to my blog roll. Is that what you meant by exchange links? Let me know if you meant something else. It is funny, you have the opposite problem as me. I have a girl with no hair, so people think she’s a boy unless I dress her in all pink. Green, yellow, etc. and they think she’s a boy. One outfit was aqua with pink flowers and people still called her a boy because of the aqua. What we’d give for hair like Daniel’s!
BBO on Thu, 26th Mar 2009 12:21 am
Hi and thanks for visiting our blog!
Daniel is such a handsome boy!
We’ll go ahead and exchange links with you.
All the best,
Best Baby Organics
http://www.bestbabyorganics.com
veronica lee on Sun, 29th Mar 2009 2:07 am
When my elder son was born, the first thing we noticed was his mop of hair which was really thick! Hubby went straight from the hospital to the mall nearby to buy him a comb!