name game - round three

Finding the right western name has never been the easiest thing for me. When I was pregnant with Leona I found a whole bunch of boy names that I liked, and so kind of subconsciously assumed she was a boy (as mentioned before). So, now that we are pregnant with a boy, one would think I could just go back to that awesome list and pick and choose, right? Wrong.

Reason being each name gets blocked by one or another selection filter we have in place, filters that I had not fully considered when putting the list together. These are them. The name must:

1. sound good in English
2. sound good in Norwegian
3. not have an immediate negative connotation in Mandarin
4. not be a current popular name
5. not have 'th' or 'r' in it (unless Judge can still easily pronounce it)
6. not be a name of someone we know

The list of boy names that I really quite like, along with why the names are disqualified for us (thus of course open for anyone in need if it catches their fancy), is:

• Theodor (means: divine gift)
• has both the 'th' sound in English and a difficult 'r' sound in Norwegian
• Leander (means: lion-man, brave)
• already taken by my friends (this name and Theodor were my actual short-list for if Leona was a boy, and my friends took both of them for their son who was born after Leona, without knowing that these were my short-list...talk about like-minded!)
•  Birk (means: birch...as in the tree)
• doesn't sound so grand in English, but I LOVE it in Norwegian
• Matheò (ma-teo; means: gift of god)
• currently a popular name
• Liam (means: strong willed warrior)
• currently a popular name 
• Aksel (means: my father is peace) 
• most of my generation will probably think of Beverly Hills Cop with Eddie Murphy - Axel Foley, but that would, I am sure, disappear after using it a while, so actual reason for disqualification:
• currently a popular name
• York (means: yew/pig farm/settlement)
• not so cool in Norwegian
• Ruben (means: "behold, a son")
• Ruben Blades anyone? But again the connection would disappear I am sure, so the more pertinant reason:
• already taken by my classmate who lives here in the village for her son that is Eliana's age
• Aiden (ay-den; means: little fire)
• not stellar in Norwegian
• already taken by a high school friend for his son
• my friend's name is Adon (also pronounced ay-den)
• Kayden (means: round, gentle; cask; companion)
• not stellar in Norwegian
• Elliot (comes from Elias or Elijah, meaning 'the lord is my god')
• already taken by my friend
• Linus (means: linblomst...some kind of flower)
• my friend's name
• Owen (means: young warrior)
• not stellar in Norwegian
• already our last name ... but I do love it as a first name so it went on the original list anyways, for sharing's sake. And lo-and-behold my sister-in-law loved it for a boy's first name too - she selected it for my nephew's English name ;)
• Odin (means: name of the head god in Norse mythology; wild, eager, raging/angry)
• I really like the name, but not for own use
• Storm (means: storm...duh, and in Norwegian it can also mean eager) - ok, it wasn't until I just checked the meanings of these last two names that I found out they mean the same thing...co-inkidink!
• I really like the name, but not for own use

I have combed countless name-websites and threads discussing names, and when I have come across a few that I could potentially consider having on a list of possibles to see if I could get used to them (so not "oh my goodness I LOVE that name" right off the bat kind of names), they have all be shot down by Judge ("no, I don't like it").

All except for one...which interestingly enough has an 'r' in it, but for whatever reason Judge is easily able to pronounce it in Norwegian - I am thinking because it is a little similar to two names of friends/family of ours over here (Fredrik and Didrik) meaning he has said those names a lot, as well as that the 'r' comes after a 'd' so maybe makes it easier as well. Anyhow, now I am trial-using the name, while still looking for more options.

In Mandarin we already settled on Yu3 An1. First character is still open for determination, while the second character's meaning (安) is quiet or peace. We had this selected when we were pregnant with Eliana.

We had recently dabbled with the thought of Yu3 Zhen4 (again, Yu3 open for determination, while Zhen4 would have been 震, meaning shock, shake, quake, as in earth quake). It has a completely different feel to it, more powerful and strong, not only due to the meaning of Zhen4, but also the actual sound itself.

However, we like the flow and feel of Yu3 An1 better, not to mention that it goes with the girls' names, Yu3 Jing4 (雨靜 - rain quiet) and Yu3 Ning2 (雨檸 - rain lemon...but Ning2 寧 means quiet so when people hear their names they assume the second character is 寧): 寧靜 Ning2 Jing4 and 安靜 An1 Jing4 are common combinations to say peaceful and quiet.

Confused yet?

In any event, there are many characters we can chose from for Yu3, so we will short list them to three or four - or eight - and give all the combinations to Judge's dad after our boy is born so he can calculate which combination is the most auspicious for our boy's life.

Personally I would prefer to just pick it ourselves, but by doing it this way - selecting combinations we are happy with like we did for Eliana, then at least it will be a name we first chose ourselves...by proxy. Doing it this way also helps ensure happiness in the extended family...or, not 'also' but really the pure reason we are doing it. And they are meeting us half-way as well, as traditionally we shouldn't be providing a short-list but rather just the birth date and time, and then we would get a list of characters to choose from (like we had for Leona's name selection...that being said I love Leona's Chinese name, and have ever since we selected it, so I'm very thankful the fortune teller provided those characters for us to choose, and am not unhappy with the process - at least not now, looking back).

For Yu3, two examples are universe (宇...which I really like - quiet universe), and and (與...this Judge really likes as it would lead to people being surprised and remembering the name easily - same reason he really likes Eliana's 'lemon' in her name).


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country bumpkins (and an ultrasound)

This past Monday we took the bus to Førde, which takes almost two hours; Førde is where I'll be giving birth this summer.

[waiting for the bus]

[my little bus-writer

still writing her squiggles right-to-left because, according to Leona, she "doesn't know how to write so she writes in the wrong direction"]

 

We went because I had the provided ultrasound scheduled (all pregnant women are offered the option to have an ultrasound between 17 and 19 weeks or so, to check the health and development of the baby).

So when we arrived at 11:20 I headed over to the hospital for my 12 o'clock mid-wife appointment and 12:30pm ultrasound, while Judge and the girls headed over to romp around in a shopping mall.

I kept feeling like I had forgotten something, was missing something, and I realized it was just that I was alone out in the world, not having the girls with me. It's been a loooong time since I've had some 'alone' time, not counting Judge taking the girls to the store and me staying home to work, which is like a mini-vacation for me (like now...though instead of working I am here, writing).

Thankfully there weren't any long waits, and by around 1:30pm I was on the bus again heading back to town centre and the rest of the gang. I called Judge to see where I should catch up with them, and they were on a glass-gangway between two buildings in the shopping center, where they had been playing almost the whole time (two large egg-shaped things the girls could run through, and a carousel). I have to say I'm impressed with how little it takes to keep these folks happily occupied.

[enjoying the carousel - non-moving at the time]

Then we went and got us some ice cream to celebrate being out of the house

[E's first time trying ice cream...liked the taste but not the coldness of it, so rejected each flavor after a careful lick...Leona on the other hand, let's just say her love for the stuff has not diminished an iota]

- and celebrate finding out the gender of our healthy little *boy*.

[our 'announcement' picture]

Took me an afternoon and evening to get used to the fact that we're having a son and not another daughter, as I had been operating under the assumption (not the gut feel, but just the subconscious assumption) that he was a girl; similar-but-opposite to when I found out Leona wasn't a boy as I had been subconsciously assuming.

As we were walking around the part of town we were in, Judge kept exclaiming about how many cars there were driving around, and how surprised he was that there were so many shopping centres (two right by each other with two buildings each or something), and I came to realize we have really lost the 'small town of 600,000 people' mentality we had in Taiwan ;)



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not quite born with skis on her feet

It's a common idiom in Norway, that Norwegians are born with skis on their feet (meaning we're all naturals...at least that's what I've always assumed it meant...that's what it means, right?).

This is not the case with little miss E. Not that either of the girls have tried skiing yet, but if you love skiing then you love snow, and until a few days ago Eliana has refused to play with it, let alone walk around in it (the only time she was willing to play with it was when I brought it in the house in a bin for them to explore...something she would request every time she saw snow on the balcony after the first time we did it).

The other day it snowed again and we bundled the girls up and headed out our front door for some fun. First me and Leona rode the sled down the hill a few times, while Judge and Eliana sat on the steps and warmed their hands over a huge outdoor candle.

Then Judge wanted to ride the sled, and Leona was playing with the snow, and Eliana slowly ventured out onto the whiteness, stopped up sometimes, tentatively walked through the deeper parts, experiencing the sound of snow crunching under her feet and the surprise of stepping down through the surface snow.

She has previously refused to sit on the sled as well, but that day she was finally willing to give it a try - and loved it (of course).

[here the sled is totally still so I can get a picture...

wouldn't think so by Eliana's expression though, hehe]

We just pulled them back and forth on the flat bit of our drive-way right outside our front door, and then as Eliana got more comfortable on there, with Leona protecting her, she couldn't get enough of the speed and excitement, laughing her full-hearted chuckle or 'aaaahhhhhh'ing and requesting 'more....more....more' every time we had to take a break.



After Judge and I were exhausted, neither of them wanted to get off sled, until Eliana decided she would pull Leona. Tried, tried again a bit surprised as to why the sled and Leona weren't budging, Leona got off and Eliana tried again - same result, so they switched, Eliana got on and Leona tried to pull....same result, until Judge helped turn the sled around and give the sled a little boost, and then off Leona was pulling Eliana - happy as two clams.

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infusion galore

Not only had I sent a list of toys and craft things I was hoping my mom could help us bring when she came for the holidays, I had done the same with my sister and brother-in-law who live in the States. When they arrived, they had a suitcase each filled just with stuff for us. It was like it was Christmas or something! (harharhar)

From Tromsø we got:

• two kids' baking sets (with rolling pins the girls use daily in their play dough play)
• tooth picks (that we can make constructions with using small balls of play dough as the joints...and sure they sell tooth picks around here, but it was cheap in the store my mom was already helping us pick other stuff up from)
• flannel bed sets
• a set of 12 toy cars
• a toy train set (that can be used with the BRIO and IKEA sets we already have)
• two dust-pan sets (so the girls can help sweep up the rice, for example, when they play it all over the kitchen floor)
• and then an awesome duplo set that wasn't on the list but that my mom picked up for the girls because she knows an awesome thing when she sees it...and knows what the girls love (and what we love for them)

[a portion of the combined loot]

I am pretty sure there was more, but can't remember all the goodness right this minute.

From the US we got (again, that I remember off the top of my head):

• two sets of 64 crayons and one set of 8 jumbo crayons (uber expensive here in Norway)
• popsicle sticks (plain and colored) for craft activities
• red glass pebbles
• cream of tartar (for our home-made play dough recipes)
• four packets of kool-aid (also for a home-made play dough recipe)
• a HUGE bag of baking soda (also extremely expensive here in Norway), for lots of science/art activities
• lots and lots of glitter
• wooden alphabet and number blocks
• this cool color coded 'tangram' thing with five boards with different pictures on each...super perfect for Leona right now 

[Leona's tangram train]

• a bag of purple feathers (from my sister's co-worker - because you can never have enough feathers)
• awesome magical water pearls (also from my sister's co-worker...she has young kids and knows where the good dollar stores are, so helped pick up some stuff)
• the most amazing pop-up dinosaur book e.v.e.r. (a surprise gift from my sister and brother-in-law) 

Needless to say we are installing the rotation method with the toys, as this infusion to our toy-inventory was substantial, to say the least. So good for winter sucky-weather nowhere-to-go days.


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count-down calendar

In Norway the tradition of having an advent's calendar still goes strong, with a broad range of types and methods.

We don't celebrate Christmas, but I saw a home-made advent's calendar that looked really fun to make, and decided instead of doing a 'count-up' to Christmas, we could do a count-down to the arrival of our holiday guests, who were going to come early morning December 22nd.

I had already sent a list of things (almost all toy and craft related) to my mom, asking her if she could stop by a few stores in Tromsø that we don't have around here and pick them up. One item was some plastic farm and jungle animals, and I figured most of them would maybe fit in the toilet paper rolls, so asked if she could send them first.


Then Judge went and got a few more little toys in Stryn, and he helped me print out a sheet with pictures of nine hiding places that I would use for the items that were too big to fit - so the picture of the location would be stuffed in the TP roll instead of the item itself, and the item placed in the hiding place the night before that day's unveiling.

The first day day was super exciting, and involved a bird-feeder that we can hang outside, as well as some nuts that were quality-checked by the girls.

Every morning the girls would poke open the day's TP roll, Leona would run to where the hiding place was (if it was a hiding-place day), while Eliana would soarly want to poke open one more. Every.single.morning.

Overall a really fun activity, and a nice way to look forward to our guests' arrival - where it was more the excitement of the act than the actual toy that brought the joy.



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cheese please (another Leonaism)

Over Christmas break my sister, brother-in-law and mom came for a visit. For lunch one day my sister was getting ready to shave some cheese from the big block of white cheese we have on hand (yes, it is just called white cheese). I had just shaved some slices off length-wise for a quesadilla, and my sister asked if anyone would get offended if she shaved the cheese breadth-wise. I said of course not.

She puts the cheese-shaver* down on the cheese and is ready to pull, when Leona exclaims "That's the wrong way - you have to do it the other way!"

"That's what I thought", my sister says with a knowing smile.

[Leona making herself a cozy spot in the huge bean-bag chair Judge purchased from his work at an insanely low price - yay job-perk!]

*For those of you who have never seen a Norwegian cheese cutter it looks like this.


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child logic is the best

A while back the girls suddenly started pushing their tripp-trapp chairs back after finishing dinner. And when I say 'back' I mean as far as they could push them, so sometimes until they hit the coffee-chairs that are located near our dining table, and sometimes all the way over to their drawing table or almost straight across the living room.

I couldn't for the life of me think of why in the world they were doing this. Until a few days later it dawned on me - they were copying me, of course.

Instead of moving my chair up to the table when done eating, I move it back to the wall by the shelf-n-drawer thing we have there, as it is then more out of the way. I also push the other chairs back to the wall, as it is easier to get by them when we need to (they can't be shoved all the way under the table, and so it is easier to slide past the fronts than the backs). Probably makes as much sense to them as their pushing their chairs did to me...'it's just the way we do things in this house'.

[so you see the set-up I'm talking about]

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