20 months and 3 weeks

Gideon is growing too fast. He loves to imitate sounds and play with the magnetic letters on the refrigerator. He loves meeting new people. We went to a girl's birthday party last weekend. I had to wake him up from his nap so that we could arrive in a timely manner. He was not happy when I woke him up. He was still grouchy when we arrived since he was still waking up. It wasn't until the host brought out all the "boy" toys that made sounds that Gideon felt social. In addition to being groggy when we arrived, he also has been super congested due to new teeth coming in and only eating dairy products for a few days. So he was coughing in the car from the phlegm in his throat that he threw up in the car seat. He had to borrow a pair of pants from the birthday girl.

This is Gideon with the birthday girl waiting for more guests at the front door.



Gideon's weekly photo. He is wanting to be more independent and in control of his choices. This was the best picture since he was so wiggly.

 

Gideon doesn't like anything sticky or messy on his hands/fingers. He shows me what he wants to be removed with a whining sound. You can add the audio from his facial expression. =)



This is a cute video of Gideon dancing and trying to do the worm.



This is a cute Father-son moment, Gideon feeding Garrett and Garrett feeding Gideon.

Introducing the name bracket!

After a long winter of National Boards and Report cards, the Chan family is ready to unveil the name bracket for Baby Girl Chan. We started this tradition when Gideon was still in the womb. We had some girl names in mind, but we did not have any boy names. We thought it would be fun to create a bracket and include our family and friends. With 64 names and Gideon's early arrival, we did not finish the bracket in time. We decided to make a smaller bracket and start a little earlier.

To remind our readers, here are the parameters of the baby girl name bracket: Garrett and I will make a post discussing four names that are in a "game." Then the readers can have a chance to vote for a winner from each game. The tournament ends when we reach the Elite Eight. Then it will be up to the parents, aka Garrett and I, to make the final decisions. =)

We made four "regions" of names: Pop Culture, International, S-names and Biblical. We brainstormed the names in one large list before deciding on the regions. We wanted a variety of names to choose from that were unique and different. Dividing the names into the regions was not easy since some of the names could be placed in more than one region. We had to shift the names to make groups of eight. The Biblical names were difficult to find since we wanted a name that was not common. The International names were the easiest to find since we like languages. The S-names region was also difficult to fill since some of the S-names did not sound right with Gideon or with my name. The Pop culture region was the most fun to create. It was supposed to be the "potpourri" region, but we didn't like how that sounded. So we looked at the names from another angle. Can you guess where each name comes from?

As we unveil the name bracket, it makes it more real that she is coming very soon. We want to be prepared with a few names at the hospital. We would like to name her as she is in our arms. We hope to finish most of the bracket by then, but we will see. Happy voting!

CLICK HERE to download Baby Girl Chan's Name Bracket as a spreadsheet
(thanks Dad!)

Gar EDIT:

 For those people who haven't seen all the names:

POP CULTURE
1 Mira
2 Aria
3 Amalia
4 Amelia
5 Lavinia
6 Georgiana
7 Cecilia
8 Topanga


S-NAMES
1 Saoirse
2 Sahara
3 Shoshanna
4 Salvadora
5 Seona
6 Shiomi
7 Soledad
8 Sabrina


INTERNATIONAL
1 Aiona
2 Mirai
3 Adela
4 Misora
5 Marisola
6 Estrella
7 Soluna
8 Gasia


BIBLICAL NAMES
1 Elisheva
2 Selah
3 Seraphina
4 Estera
5 Shiloh
6 Samantha
7 Celeste
8 Elise

20 months and 2 weeks

Gideon has been active this week. He loves to play with all the toys and walk around the house. He has been learning more about letter sounds and tries to have conversations with us rather than signing his needs. He is saying "wa, wa" for water. He says "mik" for milk. He totally knows the word, ball. He says it all the time even when it's not a ball. I am taking an apple out of the fridge, "ball." I am putting away mangoes from the grocery bag, "ball." He is making connections to the spherical word.


Gideon is super snotty. I think he is getting new molars. Also, he loves dairy products which cause more boogers. I think his weekly picture, you can see a glow under his nose. =)

 

20 months and 1 week

I cannot believe how fast this week has gone by. I am working on the name bracket, ranking the names in the four categories: S-names, Biblical, International, and Pop culture names. I feel more pressured to get it done but I am procrastinating. I have cleaned out a cabinet in my classroom of old documents that I haven't seen in 5 years that I probably do not need. Garrett has graciously typed out the names in a word document so that I can rank them and see which "regions" will be matched.

Gideon loves drawing and playing with stickers. He learned this from his Uncle Dustin in California.





Gideon has grown out of his size 6 shoe. I had a size 7 shoe in the closet that I took out for him to wear today. It is a challenge to walk in them since they are a little big for him right now. We were also given a bag of hand-me-down shoes. There is an almost new pair of Keens in there, size 8. We are now a Keen family. =)

Garrett's volleyball team had a playoff game on Saturday. Instead of sitting and watching the game, Gideon wanted to walk around. It was a beautiful day so we walked to the park behind the community center. Gideon was shocked by all the kids running around and screaming. He sat on the grass and watched for five minutes. He wanted to go down the slide but he didn't want to climb up the steps. After watching all the other kids do it, he finally got up and climbed the stairs. He was rearranging his legs on the slide to go feet first. It was taking a while and this little boy behind him almost pushed Gideon down the slide because he was so impatient. My maternal instincts quickly stopped the boy and gave a stern look. I couldn't be too mad. He was an Asian boy, the same age as Gideon and he had Down's Syndrome.

Thank you to Aunt Betty, Uncle Dennis, and Uncle Albert for this awesome bunny shirt!!!

20 months

Gideon is 20 months old, only four more months until his second birthday. Oh my! We spent our spring break in California, visiting family and friends. Gideon had an amazing time. He loved playing with all the little kids and family. He stayed up way past his bedtime because of all the great company. I think if he was staying up with just Gar and I, he would have melted down pretty quickly. Unfortunately, he was still waking up around the same time as if he went to bed early.

Easter Egg hunt: Gideon had his first egg hunt thanks to Grandma Wong. He did not know what to do with the eggs at first. He usually opens them and finds nothing inside. This time he would find pretzel goldfish and toys. He got it at the end of the egg hunt, 5 eggs. =)



20 months



"Stop taking pictures of me" look



Back at home, Gideon has found a new love: outdoor play. In California, he would be outside every morning watching the leaves blow by or playing at the nearby park. Now that he is back in Washington, he wants to continue outdoor play. Thank goodness it was 64 and sunny. We played with water toys and got all wet. So we had an indoor break, eating papaya and playing with the bead toy. Gideon tried very hard to get the beads to move. He would get frustrated, but he would continue on. I hope that means he will be persevere even when things are tough or he is just that stubborn.



Baby girl name bracket is on its way. Garrett and I have the 32 names. Now I just need to find the time to put it together. I cannot give myself a firm deadline since report cards are due this week. Take care everybody! We miss you all in California and we will return soon with baby girl Chan!