2 Aria vs. 7 Cecilia; 2 Sahara vs. 7 Soledad

Last week's results are in: Amalia beats Georgiana 8-4; Shiomi wins over Shoshanna 12-1.

This week's match-ups:  2 Aria vs. 7 Cecilia from the "Pop Culture" region, and 2 Sahara vs. 7 Soledad from the "S-Names" region.

By popular request, a pronunciation guide... Aria (Ar-ee-ah), Cecilia (Suh-sil-yah), Sahara (Sa-hair-ah), Soledad (So-lay-dahd).

Gar:  My first pick for this week is Aria.  Besides the simple, yet pleasing sound of the name, it also has 2 great meanings.  In Hebrew, Aria means "lioness" and as any well educated school child knows, it's lionesses that do the majority of the hunting, rather than the males!  In Italian, Aria refers to the solo melody song in an opera.  As a popular culture reference, Aria refers to Arya Stark, one of my favorite characters from the HBO series Game of Thrones.  Aria is also reference to a character in one of my favorite video games, Mass Effect (Aria T'Loak).  As for Sahara versus Soledad, I'll go with Soledad!  It comes from the Spanish word meaning "solitude" and is reference to the Virgin Mary, Maria de Soledad.

Shiv: I am reminded of the movie, Beaches, when I hear the name Cecilia aka CC Bloom. She was the main character who wanted to be a singer and dancer for the stars. It was a great movie about friendship and how the two characters kept in contact through snail mail. As for the S-names, I prefer Sahara because of how it rolls off the tongue, but then I am reminded of Zahara Jolie Pitt. Yes, it's the same pronunciation but different spelling. I don't know if I would like our daughter to have the same name as a Brangelina child!

Gar: Haha... you said Brangelina.  Well, the Sahara desert is a part of Africa and its geography has made it part of ancient human civilization like the Nubians, Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Greeks.  The desert can symbolize things like loneliness, but it can also be a place of austere beauty and the spirit of survival despite the difficulties of life (heard of the Desert Fathers/Mothers?) .  I think you like the name Cecilia because "CC" reminds of your secret family nickname, but Beaches... psshhhht!  Yeah, it was popular drama/comedy movie, but anybody who's seen the movie has to admit that CC was a completely selfish and vain character.  I don't want Baby Girl Chan to have those terrible traits!

Shiv: Yes, CC does have a special place in my heart because it's a family nickname for me. My maternal grandmother gave it to me. Wouldn't it be nice for Baby Girl Chan to have it too? After watching Game of Thrones with Gar, I am liking the character of Arya (Aria). She is a strong and courageous girl who is a fine swordsman. It is a tough match-up in the pop culture region.

Vote in the comments below!

Here's a link to Baby Girl Chan's Name Bracket.

21 months and 2 weeks

Gideon had a great week playing and talking. He is trying his best to communicate with us with words. He loves his magnetic letters more and more. We can leave him playing with all of them for at least five minutes without our attention. We got new animal magnets (Thank you Auntie Ginger!). Gideon would put all the letters away in a yogurt container so that he would have more room on the refrigerator. =) He is making more letter sounds when he moves the letter, like "hah, hah, hah" for H.

Gideon gave me his first handmade Mother's day present. (Thank you Patty!) He made it at daycare. It's so beautiful. I can't stop looking at it.



With the good weather, Gideon would play on the deck while Garrett would do the yard work. We would play with water and sidewalk chalk. Here is Gideon's masterpiece. He would also crawl around to get the best angle for his drawings. We took the chalk inside for safekeeping, but Gideon found it. We heard him scratching something on the floor next to the fridge. Yes, Gideon was using the chalk on our kitchen floors. I guess it makes sense to a toddler that if you could do it outside you could do it inside too!





Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Wong for Gideon's amazing New Zealand T-shirt! He is giving his fake smile!

3 Amalia vs. 6 Georgiana; 3 Shoshanna vs. 6 Shiomi

Last week's results are in: Amelia beats Lavinia 9-4; Seona dominated Salvadora 14-0.

This week's match-ups:  3 Amalia (ah-mah-lee-a) vs. 6 Georgiana from the "Pop Culture" region, and 3 Shoshanna (sho-SHAH-nah) vs. 6 Shiomi (she-oh-mee) from the "S-Names" region.

Shiv: In our pop culture region, I chose Georgiana from my favorite BBC series, Pride and Prejudice. She has a unique name. It reminds me of Maplewood apartment days and my apartment name was "Georgia." I like the name Shoshanna because it has double use of the "sh" digraph. I just realized that most of the names in our bracket are multi-syllabic. Hmm... what does that say about us?

Gar: I think we chose multi-syllabic names because when your last name is "CHAN" (a single syllable like most Chinese family names), it just sounds better.  While Georgiana has more syllables than Amalia, I dislike it because I just associate it with the mens' name 'George' (farmer).  It's like when somebody makes up a name from an already existing name... like JERMAJESTY.  Amalia has a beautiful meaning, it comes from Hebrew for "Work of the Lord."  Plus, it's a reference to Amalia Rodrigues, the famous Portugese singer with a beautiful voice (I learned about her from NPR).  As Shoshanna vs Shiomi, I'll go for the upset... Shiomi!  In Japanese, when it is written with certain characters, it means "beautiful tide."

Shiv:  Amalia is too close to Amelia that is already in the next round. Georgiana is a talented piano player in Pride and Prejudice. What Asian parent would not want their child to be an amazing musician? As for Jermajesty, you just used that name because it was in the most outrageous celebrity names in Parent magazine. I don't think Georgiana would fall into the same category as Kal-El, Bear Blu or Pilot Inspektor. If you want to follow in Jermaine Jackson's naming skills, you should have insisted on calling baby girl Chan, Garretta!

Gar: Oooh, what a low blow.  First, Kal-El is a comic book reference and an awesome name.  Second, if I ever become crazy enough to name one of my kids after me, the names would be: GARSON (boy) or GARSONA (girl). And sure, maybe Georgiana was a talented piano player in Pride and Prejudice, but she almost eloped with the evil Mr. Wickham... when she was 15!  I don't want my daughter running off with any bad men, especially as a teenager.  I'll send her to the Shaolin Monastery or the Holy Monastery of St. Stephen of Meteora before that happens.

Vote for choices in the comments below.

Here's a link to Baby Girl Chan's Name Bracket.

4 Amelia vs 5 Lavinia; 4 Salvadora vs 5 Seona

Last week's results are in: Mira beats Topanga 8-4; Saoirse barely edges out Sabrina 6-5.

This week's match-ups:  4 Amelia vs 5 Lavinia from the "Pop Culture" region, and 4 Salvadora vs 5 Seona (see-oh-nah) from the "S-Names" region.

Gar:  This week's matches are pretty interesting.  Amelia is a reference to the great Amelia Earhart: aviation pioneer, women's rights advocate, and adventurer.  She was intelligent, spirited, and courageous enough to follow her dreams even though she lived in a culture and society that was not ready for a woman like her.  I would love for Baby Girl Chan to have the same traits!  As for Salvadora and Seona, both of these S-names could easily be in our Biblical category as well.  Salvadora means "savior", while Seona means "God is gracious."  I like both names, but based upon meaning AND sound, I'll go with Seona.

Shiv: The meaning of Siobhan is "God is gracious" too. I do like Salvadora and Garrett said that we can call her "Sally" for short. =) (He just said that as I am writing my response to his.) It is a tough choice. I would have to say that I would prefer Seona as well. It just rolls off the tongue better. As for the "Pop Culture" region, Lavinia is in homage to Downton Abbey. Yes, she was a character who kept our two favorite characters from being together, but Mary didn't fit with our name bracket. We know of many amazing Mary's but Lavinia was more unique. Lavinia Chan... doesn't that sound great, Garrett?

Gar: While I will concede to Downton Abbey being gangsta, I don't think "Lavinia Chan" sounds that great.  What will we call her for short?  La-La?  Nia?  Vinny?  I looked up the meaning of the name and it's a reference to the legendary mother of the Roman people, or possibly, an ancient city.  Again, not as cool as Amelia.  Sorry.

Shiv: The Germanic meaning of Amelia is "work, effort, strain." I like work and effort but strain just sounds odd. Think about Amelia Bedelia. She didn't know there is more than one meaning for words. Yes, she is a great children's book character to teach students lessons about vocabulary but she would be forever known as the character who dressed the chicken in a dress!

Vote for your choices in the comments below!

Here's a link to the Baby Girl Chan's name bracket.

21 months and 1 week

Gideon loves stickers. Thank you to Uncle Dustin, he believes that all stickers belong on your face. He would take a sticker and put it on my cheek. Then he would take the sticker off my cheek and put it onto his cheek. He doesn't know about putting stickers on his clothes or other body parts yet. I placed those stickers on his shirt since I didn't want to wear them anymore. I took Gideon with me to get the tires inspected at Discount Tire. The employee said, "Don't worry about showing me the car. You can take care of your sticker boy!" Guess what was on Gideon's face? =)



I have a book that I brought here from my childhood home. It's an ABC book that was published during my elementary school years. Gideon loves reading the book. When we get to "L" is for lion, he always roars.



Garrett took some pictures of Gideon while he was eating. They are awesome. I love Gideon's facial expressions. He is becoming more of a toddler: expressing his needs through words/babble and playing with toys for longer periods of time.





Thank you to Auntie Maria for my awesome Ralph Lauren white khakis!

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!