Tater Origins

We thought it would be cool to share with everyone the makings of tater - NO not those details but what was going on around the time it all started.

Our friends Renee and Paumoune (Puh-Moon) were having a blessing for their new baby, Tristan and invited us to come along and take some pictures of the event. We were not sure what to expect but knew it was a ver big deal - Paumoune is from Laos and his family is buddhist and they have a very strong belief system when it comes to families, and especially new babies. We knew it was big when we found out "Mommy" (that is what his mom calls herself) had been cooking and preparing the food for two weeks prior to the blessing.

The night before we went over and took some pictures and helped roll egg rolls (these happen to be some of the best we have ever had - not because we helped roll them, just because they really are that good). The following day we dressed up and went over - we were one a couple white people and didn't really feel out of place except for the lack of language on our part. We were sitting around and watching everything go on and Cody helped this gentleman fix his camera - which made this guys day - thought Cody was a great person (which he is). So when the blessing started, the guy with the newly fixed camera happened to be the monk who was giving the blessing. It was kind of funny to realize who he was when it started. So we sat back, took pictures and enjoyed this whole thing take place. Everyone sat on the floor in a circle around this shrine like center piece and took turns laying hands on Renee, Paumoune and Tristan, speaking in their native language blessings for this little fellow. When they blessed a person, they placed a macroon cookie and an egg in the persons hand and spoke the blessing and tied a white string around the wrist of the person while everyone laid hands on the person. It was a really neat experience to be a part of. Towards the end, they started to bless all the family members and one the first people to get blessed was Cody - the monk and "mommy" pulled him over to get his blessing. As the monk went to place the cookie and egg in his hand, the monk grabbed a bowl full of cookies and egg and said that Cody was getting extra special blessings. He started in Laos and then translated the blessing to say that good things were to happen to us and that we would win the lottery and share it with him and Paumoune. I thought it was really cool they included Cody in this and until they pulled me for a blessing too. Minus the huge heap of cookies, I received the same blessing as Cody. We were both excited and thought we would win the lottery and bought tickets later that week.

We then went on to eat some of the best food - minus the chicken foot salad - yes, chicken feet, it is exactly how it sounds and is apparently a real delicacy for them. We tried it to be polite but were quick to pass on seconds. Everything else was incredible.

We went home later and forgot about most of the blessing except for our new little bracelets. We then started talking more about children and families over the next few weeks, and figuring out when we were going to start all this and Cody said at one point "we'll your not getting any younger, we should do it soon". Little did we know just how soon we would be starting! :)

It was not until April 10th that we found out that we would be parents much sooner than we thought. We told Renee and Paumoune that we thought we were going to win the lottery not have a baby so we kept jokingly calling them "fertility bracelets", but we were corrected and told that they were actually to bless you and have your deepest hearts desire come from the blessing.

We are going to start a baby book for the little tater and we kept those bracelets - a little worse for wear, but still valuable and it makes a pretty cool story.