1 Mira vs 8 Topanga; 1 Saoirse vs 8 Sabrina

We finally have the time to write out the first post for Baby Girl Chan's Name Bracket. In the "Pop Culture" region, it is 1 Mira vs. 8 Topanga. In the "S-names" region, it is 1 Saoirse vs. 8 Sabrina.

Siobhan - In the "pop culture" region, I have to say that Topanga is a unique name. It reminds me of the good old days of watching Boy Meets World with my siblings. Yes, that is where the name came from. She was an independent thinker who walked to the beat of her own drum. In the "S-names" region, I liked the movie, Sabrina. She was willing to move to another country to experience life in a new way. I would hope that baby girl Chan will also have the desire to experience life with such courage and bravery.

Gar - Topanga was a weird girl. Seriously... her character made no sense.  Plus, the actress who played her ended up dating co-star Ben Savage, and later, Lance Bass from N*Sync.  Booo.  Mira is a much more awesome name - it means "peaceful, wonderful."  Plus, a famous Mira is Mira Sorvino, the actress in one my favorite cult films, Guillermo del Toro's Mimic.  She's super smart - she graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in East Asian Studies and speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese!  As for Saoirse (sear-sha) vs. Sabrina, I'm going to go with Saoirse.  It's unique, it's an Irish name (like Siobhan) and it has a great meaning "freedom, liberty."

Siobhan - Mira Sorvino's performance in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion also has some quirky moments too. Overall, Mira has a slightly better sound than Topanga with the last name Chan and with the Chinese accent. Plus, my mom's name is Miranda. She would love to hear part of her name in her granddaughter's name. Saoirse is an amazing Irish name. Yes, it would follow our Irish heritage, =), but it will be a tough childhood and adulthood with people always mispronouncing your name.

Gar - Yeah, having people mess up your name your whole life can make for a tough life, but I think it could also help Baby Girl Chan to grow up to be a tough woman.  YEAH!  Sorry, Topanga and Sabrina.  I think this first round pretty obviously goes to the top seeds. 

Feel free to now vote in the comments below!

BONUS:  It's hard to believe, but it's been 2 whole years since Gideon's Name Bracket.  And yes, Gideon was a name that was one there!  It's exciting to think about what Baby Girl Chan's name will be...

5/13 EDIT:  Voting is now closed!

21 months!

 Happy cinco de mayo! It was also Gideon's 21st month birthday! I cannot believe how fast he has grown up and he is only three months away from being two. Gideon is playing with his magnetic letters more and more. He tries to say the letters and make words with the letters. He puts them in a row and says the word in his language. He loves playing with magnetic letters at friends' houses too.  His current favorite book is Green Eggs and Ham. He loves to respond to the questions like Would you eat them with a mouse? Gideon would say "No!" It is the new bedtime story favorite.

Gideon went to a friend's first birthday party. Happy Birthday Mercy! There was a bouncy house. Gideon loved going inside. At first, I thought he would be scared. Yes, pregnant mom took Gideon inside the bouncy house. After a few minutes, I realized that Garrett should be inside instead. I took Gideon out and he was screaming and crying to go back inside. Woohoo for cell phones! I called Garrett who was inside the house to come outside. Here is Gideon inside the bouncy house.



There was so much traffic coming home that we decided to make a pit stop at Matsu Sushi. Gideon is looking at the menu with Garrett.



Weekly picture: Gideon knows now that when the camera comes out he has to say "cheese." He usually stops the cute thing that he is doing in order to look at the camera. Oh no!

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!