Chinese Names Stump Me

We have chosen Emily for our baby's English name. We love the name. It's sweet, happy and fits well with Pokpok's surname.

The hard part is the Chinese name. We asked Dad and Mum about our family 家谱, and it seems we don't have one. My dad and my generation names were conjured up by my grandpa. I suspect there might be one in China but we've never been there. I vaguely recall Dad saying that my grandparents names are craved in the ancestral temple in China because they donated some monies for the temple. But still it may have been a hoax and the money siphoned off by cunning distance relatives.

So coming to the next generation, we are left to our own devices to come up with a classy elegant Chinese name for our baby. The big problem I have is that I'm very bad at Chinese. I've not studied it since secondary school. Even though I scored better at it, I got a B4 for Chinese versus C6 for English, my command of my mother-tongue language is sorely lacking.

Hence it has come to be that I'm now in an 'approver' role. My parent-in-law and sister-in-law have excellent grasp of the language and have been brainstorming for names over the past few months at our request. They have shortlisted some and ran them with me to see my preference.

憬 jǐng。憧憬 chōng jǐng - 对美好事物的向往 / Looking forward to a bright future. This is the prime candidate for the 2nd character. It works well with my surname 巫 wū which is 第一声. And with it comes a whole suite of 3rd characters for both boys and girls.

Girl: 憬芊jǐngqiān，憬萱jǐngxuān，憬琪jǐngqí，憬曦jǐngxī，憬蓉jǐngróng
Boy: 憬阳jǐngyáng，憬浩jǐnghào，憬涛jǐngtāo

I'm liking the 憬 jǐng variants a lot at the moment. Its not set yet but these names are the most promising. We briefly looked at 芷 zhǐ which also sounds great with 巫 but for now, 憬 jǐng takes top spot.

Gynae Visit - 26th January 2015

The visits to our Gynecologist are becoming more frequent as we approach the last lap. We are at week 34 now and Meimei's belly has grown significantly. She has been eating diligently in hopes that baby will catch up on the weight. I know sometimes she has to force herself to eat even when she feels full.

This week we had a little chat with Emily while we were waiting for our turn. She had covered her mouth in the last appointment so we asked her to give us a good pose today. She obediently obliged and gave us a good view. Even Dr Loh was commenting that Emily is very 'guai', let us see her. *kiss good job Emily!

She is making good progress at 2.3kg this week. Dr Loh is a little concerned about the position of her hands though with signs of compound presentation. Hopefully she will move into a better position when the time comes. We'll gonna find pictures of proper positioning to show her so she knows what the right posture should be for normal safe delivery.

Year of Goat Mints

Lovely mints for the year of the Goat. They make great gifts too for the new babies coming this year.

She Hears Me

They say babies can hear their parents when they are in mummy's womb. Meimei chats with her all the time throughout the day. I try to chat with Emily every night before bed. I tell her about my day, what I had for lunch, where we were for dinner, etc.

I like to tell her to be patient and stay in the safety of Meimei's tummy and only come out when we are close to EDD in early March. Chinese New Year is a few weeks before Emily's EDD so I'm confident she'll arrive as a 小MehMeh. Dad says he likes a goat grand baby, they are elegant and classy. We bought a cute goat theme trinket in anticipation of her arrival.

I think Emily hears me whenever we chat. She'll give light punches and kicks when she hears my voice. I can feel her tapping when I put my hands on Meimei's tummy and speak to her. I suppose this is the start of the bedtime rituals where I would read nursery stories to put her to bed. I'm truly looking forward to these tender moments with our little one.

Father-In-Law's Poem: Lazing Through The Seasons

I learned from Meimei that my Father-in-Law loves to doodle. He will keep pieces of scrap paper or notepads around just to draw and write things on a whim. I see that in Meimei as well. She takes after her dad very much in habits and cheekiness.

He came up with this out of the blue this morning when we were over for breakfast. Both father and mother in-law are fluent and good in Chinese. It's too late for me to pick this up but I hope our kids will take on a strong interest in Chinese. It's a very colourful and sparking language.

Gynae Visit - 5th January 2015

Today marks week 31. We had a late appointment today at 3.45pm but the queue was long and those who have arrived at 2pm are still waiting for their turn. It took another hour before we got our turn.

Dr Loh was expecting baby to be around 2kg but it seems she is a little smaller at 1.77kg. The estimated delivery date on the scanning screen showed 11 Mar so there was an improvement versus the last visit. Dr Loh said he is happy with the baby's weight but Meimei was still concerned and wants to have durian. I think baby will be fine so long as Meimei keeps to her current diet and food volume intake. We don't want baby to be too big as well or there might be complications during birth.

Our baby is a little shy today. She has her hand against her mouth and we couldn't see her tiny lips. I should talk to her next time to give us a good pose :-) Anyways I'm happy both mother and baby is healthy and doing well. The next appointment is in another 3 weeks so we'll see her again this month.

Beancurd Goodness at Din Tai Fung

Love the beancurd skin, could have been slightly softer. Can't beat having soup for lunch.

New Year's Resolution 2015

It's that time of the year again. New year, new goals, new aspirations. 2014 has been an awesome year. We are finally having a baby and we are eagerly awaiting her arrival. I've completed my MBA so that's off the table. Things can improve on the work front but I'm taking it as it comes. Hopefully 2015 will provide me more opportunities and stability I'm sure I'll need with a new baby in the family.

My 2015 resolutions revolves around family:

1) Help out as much as possible around the house and baby

2) No temper tantrums when I wake up in the middle of the night to help Meimei with baby feeding

3) Give Meimei the most attention even when baby is here so she won't feel jealous

I'm expecting an exciting 2015. Surely there'll be more blog posts to share our baby's everyday. We have to keep our hand phones and cameras close so we can capture all the precious moments.