of pyramid schemes and names...

I am not sure how it goes but I think I have been tagged. From what I read in other blogs I think it’s something to about posting to a specific topic or set of pre determined questions. And when you are done, you are supposed to list (or tag) other bloggers and they in turn go on to repeat the same cycle. I think something sort of like a blogging pyramid scheme but with no money involved.
So, anyway, I was reading this hijackqueen’s blog and she has this post about how she named her children then at the end of it she has something like she wanna tag other bloggers and Sue Yi’s papa is one of them. So I guess it’s me then.
Ironically I have been thinking about writing about Sue Yi’s name before I read her latest post. Must be some kind of an intergalactic psycho mumbo jumbo perhaps?
Anyway, sometime through the course of wifey’s pregnancy, the thought of what to name our daughter came to mind. My criteria is that the name has to be common enough that the normal Ah ee in the market can pronounce, but not be too plain. Has to be distinctive too so that she will stand out but not too weird unique that little boys and girls will make fun of. There were also a few tips from baby center like finding out the meaning of the name, test it out with the last name to see if it jive, and a few more. One that I find interesting is that to try not to have the last alphabet of the first name same as the first alphabet of the last name. Sounds odd but makes sense because if you pronounce the name, it will sound like he first name and the last name joined together. Then there is also the kiasu ah ee tips like give names that start with A so that the kid will be called first in class and gets to sit in front.
With those tips on hand we narrow down to a few.
Some of my early proposal are; First there was Laquesha – (haha just joking only la. I knew wifey will shoot this one down) coz it sound interesting, but I doubt that it will pass the ‘Ah Ee in the market can pronounce’ test. Then there is Bootsie – Got this from a book on baby names. The book is pretty cool because it has list of names like ‘List of cute names’, ‘list names that will get misspelled’ etc. of but I doubt I want my daughter to spend her adult years in counseling. Then there is Scout, a character from the book ‘to kill a mockingbird’. I was also pretty stuck on Sadie (Pronounced as Say-dee), but I think it will be mispronounced easily. I guess you kinda know where this is going right?

So I guess it goes without saying that as far as the name goes, our shortlist are mostly from wifey. (cue to Sue Yi: go hug you mommy for saving you from the disgrace of a weird name). I have to admit though that the names that she shortlisted are pretty cool.

Then there’s the part on the Chinese name. This is the easier part. We just delegate the task to our parents. Wifey thinks that probably it’s good to ask my parents for suggestions. My mom kinda took to that task, but se seem to be taking a lot of time and did not come up with anything. Fortunately we got that covered and went and asked wifey’s dad for some suggestion. Wifey’s brother gave us the contact of a guy who calculates and suggest Chinese names, but we choose not to go for that because we were kinda worried that he might suggest a name that we will both not like. Besides, it feels kinda odd to us to have a strange to give name to our daughter. Anyway, wifey’s dad came up with a few a week later but wifey rejected them all because they kinda sound a bit odd. Some sounds like boys’ names while others sounds a bit … common (for the lack of a better word). Anyway, we took the suggestions back to my mom but she still come up with something that sound almost similar. So looks like we are stuck. That was wifey tooks things into our own hands. She looked up and decided that for Chinese name we will go with Soon Yi as it sounds and rhymes with my surname. But wifey’s dad suggest that we soften the Soon part because it sounds a bit like a boy’s name and that’s how we got Sue Yi.

An that’s how we come to Sophie Loong Sue Yi.

of goo goo gaa gaa and physics...

Feels like ages since I have posted something. Not because there is nothing to brag write about, but I guess it probably boils down to good ol laziness. I think I’m one of those people who needs to have some kinder of starter to get me going. You know, like those old propeller bi planes where in order to start the engine, one guy will have to turn the prop to get it going. I need some thing to start to get me going and I guess when I get going I can keep up the momentum.

Anyway, like I say, there hasn’t been a lack of things to write and here’s one that I have been meaning to put down for sometime. I guess it sounds a bit adulterous in a way to say that I am very much in love with another girl even though I am married to wifey. Now before anyone goes all over and start getting all worked up let me clarify that, Yes I do love wifey (and very deeply so in fact), but every time I look at Sue Yi, I am filled with this awesome feeling that just can’t be described. People say that being in love is the most wonderful feeling, but this feeling I get from Sue Yi is in every bit as good as that.
Every evening when wifey brings her back from the sitter, I will get that tremendous joy when I see her. In some ways she is like her dad, a slow starter. Whenever she comes home, she will initially be quiet. Then with a little bit of teasing, she will get all excited and laugh and flash her sweetest smile. I find that every time she does that I will be filled with such joy. Such indescribable joy.
She have also beginning to respond and ‘talk’ back when we talk to her. I used to think that those adults that talk baby goo gaa and goble goble are such morons who make a fool of themselves acting all childish. And guess what, I am that moron now. To be frank, I really don’t mind because it’s that joy I get when I bring my face close to her and she her beautiful eyes (yea she indeed have beautiful eyes) look into mine and she goo goo and gaa gaa at me as if to tell me about her day. And on a good day, she will go on and on and on. And I in turn will be that moron and go goo goo gaa gaa on and on and on.
Even when she is asleep, she looks so lovely. I get that sense of peace whenever I see her sleeping peacefully. (in retrospect the image of a sleeping baby is definitely a welcoming sight after hours of coaxing her to sleep). In the evenings I would sometimes go and see her sleeping soundly in the cradle. Just the sight of her sleeping and the sound of her snoring gives me a peace that I find hard to describe. In the mornings, before I go to work, I will make it a point to spend some time looking at her (usually still sleeping). That will at least make the day at the office more bearable.
And if I ever lose my memory, I do hope that those images are the last to go. I never knew that such simple things can bring such wonderful emotions.
So yeah, I really love my Sue Yi. Tremendously. She gives me peace, she gives me joy and I guess in some ways I see wifey in her which in turn makes me love her even more. But the greatest thing of all is that I find that I love wifey even more. Not that I love her less in the past, but I seem to realize that I love her more. I love wifey tremendously and I guess now it’s more tremendously times a hundred.

I guess this is the amazing thing about this feeling called love. It defies the laws of physics where you will find that the more you give the more you will have. Try as you might to divide it, you will find that you will have more than you started off with.

of photos and saying 'Hi!'...

Found this shot in the camera SD card while uploading photos for the prev post.

Taking time off to say 'Hi!'

of mother's day and IOU...

Today is mother's day and it will be the first time that wifey celebrates it as a mommy. Since Sue Yi is still not old enough to shop on her own yet, I took the liberty and got this for her to give to wifey*.

*Sophie, you owe me some money...

of jabs and 3 months...

Sue Yi is 3 months today and we celebrated it by taking her to the govt. clinic for her monthly jab (note to Sue Yi, no lah, we are not that sadistic, it’s just the timing of the jabs la)
Anyway, it seems like only yesterday that Sue Yi was born and with a blink of an eye she is now 3 months old. An interesting thing happened at the clinic today. When we went to see the nurse, they got all excited. They keep mentioning “Eric, Eric”, “Eric Datang”, “Eric, Kasi sofa sebiji boleh ka?”. They even called the nurses from other rooms to come over and see. Interestingly the commotion was centered around me. The thing is, I bear a resemblance to that guy from Casa Impian, Eric Leong. Although not related, I must say that he really does look quite a bit like me and I have been mistaken for him before. Anyway, I explained that I am not that guy and made some small talk out of that. By far, this morning’s commotion was the biggest thus far. Maybe time, I should play along and see if I can weasel out a free meal or two.

Back to the clinic visit, the jab was quite uneventful. I guess we kinda know what to expect from our experience during our first visit. The nurse asked us to hold Sue Yi down and Sue Yi being her (dislikes being held down) protested and cried. And she continued crying through out the jab, but calmed down within 5 minutes or so. Wifey did pretty well too as she manage to hold back her tears. Me? I was the cold hearted, non-feeling dad, business as usual dad. It hurt to see Sue Yi cry, but I guess being the practical engineering minded person, I rationalized that it’s for her good and it did not bothered me.

Some updates:
We have a new nickname for Sue Yi. “The Empress”. The origins should be pretty obvious, but I think is started when I told wifey that now that Sue Yi is here she have overthrown wifey as the empress.
Sue Yi is growing to be quite the PR person. Whenever we have visitors or when she sees someone new, she will give out her best smile, coo and make all the baby sounds which will draw comments like “oooh how cute”, “So crever” etc. Seems like everyone is her friend. Then people will tell us that “wah you so lucky, you baby so behaved” but in the back of wifey’s and my mind, we will be thinking “wait till you experience her atomic-red-faced-pressure-cooker-high-octave cries”
She is getting to be quite chatty too. When her mood is right, she will respond with her ‘coo’, ‘aa goo’, and whatever in her bag of tricks of baby sounds. This can be a lot of fun but sometimes she like to talk even when we are trying to feed her. As if she is excited to tell us about something or maybe trying to tell us how crappy the milk taste. Every evening when we bring her back from the sitter’s place, she will talk and talk and talk. I guess she must be telling us about her day.
Other than her vigorous kicking, she is now developing the habit of trying to lift up her head when we lie her down. She will try so hard until her face will turn read and you can see the stress on her face. We are not sure if it is good or not but she sure look funny when she does that until she fell on her side and can’t get turn back.

Sue Yi and her sleeping buddy

of milestones and diaper size...

I guess Sue Yi hit another milestone of sorts yesterday. We have been using Mamypoko diapers for her during the night and since day one we have been using the newborn size. Wifey have mentioned that probably we should be getting the S size the next round we restock our diaper supply as we noticed that the current size is a bit snug for Sue Yi.
So last night we tried on the S size and it seems to fit better. So I guess we have physical proof now that our daughter is growing (at least in the ass department) and it’s not just me imagining that i thought i saw her looking differently everyday.

of long weekend and a difficult Thursday...

We had a bumper holiday last weekend. This year’s Wesak day and Labour day fell on the same day (Tuesday). Since my workplace set the replacement holiday as Monday, that meant I got a long stretch of holidays from Saturday to Wednesday. On the other hand, Wifey’s replacement holiday was on Wednesday, so I took Wednesday off too. Well it’s actually no big deal as Wifey is still working from home.
Anyway, I think last weekend must be the longest single stretch that we got to take care of Sue Yi. It’s amazing that we can see her growing from day to day. Every morning when she wakes up, she will look like ‘different’. People sometimes say that if you see someone everyday, you will not notice her growth, but with Sue Yi, she definitely seem to be growing every single day.
We send her back to the baby sitter on Wednesday. It seems like ages since wifey and I went out, so, took the opportunity to go out shopping. We need to stock up on some stuff anyway, so might as well take the time to do so. As usual, even though wifey set out to shop for some new clothes for herself, she ended up buying baby clothes for Sue Yi. I got Sue Yi one of those play gym thingy and we stocked up on the rest of the normal items like diapers etc.
It was a good outing but somehow kinda felt a bit empty and missing our baby girl. And as luck would have it, we met Dr Tan at Gurney and he asked why we didn’t bring Sue Yi out to parade? It’s always good talking to Dr Tan, but somehow felt a bit guilty for leaving Sue Yi at the sitter while we were out shopping. (note to Sue Yi: don’t be mad at us la, we were out buying goodies for you ma…)

Another thing that I noticed too is that after constantly seeing Sue Yi for the long weekend, Thurdsday (my first day of work) seem so difficult. Missed her so much, especially her dopey face when she smile.