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Lew Family Blog
Friday, July 10, 2009
The Daddy Magic
We hardly ever call the Snugli (baby carrier) by its rightful name. We call it the "Daddy Magic.*" It was been the secret weapon in baby soothing since Adam was a newborn. Babies go from This*. to:  Going ...  Going ...  Usually Eagles or Billy Joel ballads. Unless, somewhere in the apartment, there is a toddler insisting upon hearing "Jingle Bells." *It is called the Daddy Magic whether it is worn by Daddy or by Mommy. It got its name after its powers were discovered in several consecutive wearings of newborn Adam by Daddy. **You might imagine how difficult these snaps were to take -one handed from behind my own shoulder. The camera cannot focus from too close. From the archives: this is Adam in the Daddy Magic at 10 days.   God, it goes by so much faster the second time around. Labels: 2weeks, adam, Naomi, photos |
Monday, July 06, 2009
Her Name
| Warning: long and boring except to name nerds. :P And maybe even to them. Save this for bedtime reading. We'd always "planned" on Margaret for a girl but never expected to use it. We really were surprised to have had a girl. How surprised? Well, Adam was the 20th consecutive boy born on Dion's side. Dion's grandfather had 12 brothers, no sisters. 2 sons, no daughters. 4 grandsons, no granddaughters. 1 great grandson, no great granddaughters. You can understand why I told the ultrasound technician not to bother continuing to look when she couldn't see all the baby's parts. The few baby girl dreams I had didn't nearly convince me that it was even possible that I was carrying a girl. Neither did Adam's saying 75% of the time that the baby was a girl. He might have been saying that I am a girl. Still, it's a little surprising that I, of all people, was caught unprepared. Names are a thing for me. I am a regular reader of more than one baby naming blog. No kidding. There are blogs for everything. Names are such a thing for me that I was nearly disappointed that we'd found the perfect names - Jonah and Margaret - so early in my pregnancy. Indeed, Margaret was a no-brainer and had been chosen when I was pregnant with Adam. Margaret is a family name. Our Margaret Naomi is at least the 6th generation of Paterson women to wear the name. My sister, Patricia Margaret (Peggy), was the 5th. My mother, Margaret Elizabeth, was the 4th. My grandmother, Rubina Margaret (Ruby), was the 3rd. My grandmother's aunt on her paternal side was the 2nd. My grandmother's grandmother was the 1st - of which I know. There might very well be more Margarets in the line. I believe it was this paternal grandmother of my maternal grandmother who hand-made the christening gown that Adam wore and Naomi will wear soon.  No really, I'm listening. Go on, Mom.Moreover, Margaret in and of itself is a great name. It may be at a century-low in popularity but it is due for a comeback, IMHO. Margaret is even lovely with Lew. Few girls' names are. Many perfectly nice names are ridiculous with Lew. These would all be candidates for me: Laura, Emma, Leah, and Mary - were it not for "Laura Lew," "Emma Lew," "Leah Lew," and "MARY LEW!" Anything at all sweet fails. Longer, stronger names, like Margaret, work much better. So done, right? No no, about a month before I was due, I had to complicate things. It felt like choosing Margaret was too easy. Where's the fun in a no-brainer? Perhaps we could choose a middle name? I thought a 2- or 3-syllable name would sound best. I floated a couple of ideas and looked them up online: Rachel, Daphne, Sarah, Fiona, and Naomi. It was just a brainstorm. Just fantasy, seeing as we didn't actually need to choose a girl's name. Dion wasn't into the game. He merely said that he wouldn't veto any of those names. Neither was he inclined to suggest any. Party pooper. I even considered submitting a query "Margaret _____ Lou" to Swistle's baby naming blog. Maybe I'd ask for a poll for Rachel, Sarah, and Naomi. But it didn't seem right to take up other people's time for a silly, unnecessary game. Oops. Still reading? Wow. name nerd. Here's your reward: another photo of Naomi.  Yawn! Boring, Mom, boring.Well, then she was born. Margaret Lew. Should we choose a middle name? Margaret Naomi Lew flowed better than Margaret Rachel Lew or Margaret Sarah Lew, I thought. Yes, Naomi. Dion and I both liked it best. We were set with Margaret Naomi Lew and had the hospital register that name on all her forms, including her health card. But what were we really going to call her? Margaret seemed a really grown-up name for a baby. While Dion and the baby slept, I was thinking through the many diminutives for Margaret and none worked for me. I did want a diminutive because although my mother died almost 13 years ago, calling my baby Margaret was still just a little bit sad for me. Peggy Lew? yuck. Maggie? My mother hated it; so, I'm biased against it. Greta? I like it - for someone else's kid. Meg? I like it. Meg Lew? sounds like "igloo" or "my glue." Most other diminutives have the Marylou problem. Just Margaret then? Use the just recently and hastily chosen middle name? While I waffled and Dion slept on it, he became convinced that Margaret really was a big name for a little baby. But where Dion had invested little in the name choice and could go with his gut, I had lived with "Margaret Lew" for months. I felt a little like I was giving something up to get Naomi. I love both names but Dion fell for Naomi, which made me fall for it, too.  I cannot believe you are still going on about this, Mom.We waited a day or so to "correct" what had already been announced as Margaret's arrival until my buyer's remorse wore off and until we had done our due diligence. By due diligence, I mean googling Naomi Lew to make sure there's no one infamous who goes by that name and my re-checking a few baby-naming resources to make sure Naomi isn't suddenly the flavour-of-the-month in baby-naming or that there was nothing else off-putting about the name. Here were the results: Google: A few Naomi Lews exist, but no one scandalous. Hey, we're fourth on the list already! Nymbler: Naomi alone "inspires" Carmella, Nina, Miriam, Celeste, Eve, and several Japanese names. Margaret and Naomi together "inspire" Rachel, Sarah, Mary, Elizabeth, Ivy, Eve, and Rebecca. In the other order, Daphne and Laura also appeared. Nymbler reads my mind, apparently. If I didn't have an Adam, Eve would be a favourite, too. Social Security Online - Popular Names: Over the 2000s, Margaret was the 134th most common girl's name in the US; Naomi was 148th. Name Voyager: In the US, since the 1880's, Naomi peaked in popularity in the 1910's at around 720 Naomis per million babies at 134th most common, was lowest around 1960 at around 170 Naomis per million babies at 314th most common, and has since been rising steadily to 118th with around 690 Naomis per million babies in 2008. On the other hand, Margaret has been falling since being 4th in the 1910s and bottoming out around 180th last year (500 Margarets per million babies.) These have very different scales. Naomi goes from 0 to 680, Margaret from 0 to 10,400.   Behind the Name: From the Hebrew name, נָעֳמִי (Na'omiy,) meaning "pleasantness." In the Old Testament this was the name of the mother-in-law of Ruth. After the death of her husband, Naomi took the name Mara (see Ruth 1:20.) Though previously common as a Jewish name, Naomi was not typically used as an English Christian name until after the Protestant Reformation. ALSO From Japanese 直 (nao) "honest, straight" and 美 (mi) "beautiful." Pronunciation: nay-O-mee or nie-O-mee. I like and use both unconsciously and interchangeably. Dion says nie-O-mee consistently. Adam says NIE-o-mee most of the time but throws in NAY-o-mee now and then. Pronounce it however you like. I'm sure when she's 13, she'll correct you to the pronunciation she likes. Labels: birth, name, Naomi, photos |
Friday, July 03, 2009
Save the date, spread the word.
| We'll be having Naomi's baptism at McLeod-Stewarton United (or whatever it's called now) in Ottawa on the Sunday of the long weekend in August (Aug. 2.) Everyone will be invited back to my Aunt Jean's house after the service. I'll try to get an approximate head-count for refreshments when we get closer to the date. Labels: christening, Naomi |
Good Growing!
| At Naomi's weigh-in on Tuesday (age 11 days), she got the green light to sleep as long as she wants. Woo-hoo. No more waking her up to eat every three hours. She'd gone up to 7 lb 7 oz from 6 lb 9 oz eight days earlier. That's pretty close to two ounces per day, when we're aiming for one ounce per day. It's amazing how wonderfully chubby she looks already. Check out the cheeks and double chin.  |
Thursday, July 02, 2009
More Introductions and Visits for Naomi
 Granddad Uncle Roger Aunt Leela Uncle Ian  Aunt Edith  Poh-Poh  Aunt Edith and Poh-Poh Labels: 1week, family, Naomi, photos |
Big Adjustment to Big Brother
 Poor Adam had a rough first week or so as a big brother. He's fascinated by Naomi and very sweet to her, though a little bit of a bull in a china shop. But his stress came out at naptime and bedtime. We'd recovered from the new temptation to escape his room just a week or so before Naomi was born. He'd finally gone back to staying in his bed and chatting for 20 minutes to 2 hours while falling asleep. I love his night-time chats. Then for about a week after Naomi was born, naptime and bedtime became a struggle again. He simple refused to nap on several occasions, which is a big deal because he's accustomed to a 3-hour afternoon nap. Instead of chatting, he'd play for hours until he crashed or, worse, beg sobbingly for Mommy over and over again. In the photo above, he'd fallen asleep with his seal on the hardwood mid-plea. Luckily, the sleep trouble was short-lived. He's been back to "normal" for several days and treats us over the monitor to surprisingly clear and correct renditions of his repetoire of best-loved songs, poems, and books. Today's nap came preceded by Old Macdonald and Aura Lee. Last night, there were easily half a dozen songs, including, Michael Finnegan, Auld Lang Syne, and ABCD (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star).  Labels: 2years, adam, brother, sleep |
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Naomi's birth
| I "promised" a blog entry on Naomi's birth; so, here it is. For those of you who are wary of gory details, fear not. It was a mercifully short and simple labour and delivery. The Coles' Notes version: I started having strong contractions around 3 pm on Friday, the 19th, called the hospital and babysitters at 4pm, parked at the hospital at 5 pm, had my own OB arrive in time to deliver, had my water broken for me, pushed 7 times (maybe only 6), and had a daughter at 6:11 pm. The End. more detail for the terribly curious I was feeling pretty good all through my second and third trimesters. I gained a healthy amount of weight that wasn't too burdensome to drag around with my nearly six-foot frame. At my 38-week check up, there were no signs of labour starting. I had finished my report cards on Wednesday, and so, I felt like I had been on vacation by the following weekend. Then Monday night, I had such strong fetal movements and cramping that I barely slept. Same thing Wednesday night and Thursday night. I could tell things were moving along and had our bags in the car and ready to go. At my 39-week check up on Thursday, I wasn't very dilated but 80% shortened. In other words, we could expect the baby to arrive any time. In fact, Jenn, my OB, told me not to bother scheduling an appointment for the next week. She told me to show up at the hospital on Sunday morning, when she'd be on shift and she'd help things along, if the baby hadn't made an appearance yet. Thus, we knew the baby would be born Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. So, we made our last-minute child-care arrangements, stocked the cupboards and fridge, and Dion took Friday off work. Which... thank goodness. I had a few contractions Friday morning, but never more than 3 in a row. Then around 3:30, I realised that I'd had 4 strong contractions spaced about 10 minutes apart. We waited for just a couple of more contractions to make sure this was the real deal. With my having had a short labour for Adam and with rush hour coming, we were not going to mess around. We called in the troops to take care of Adam, called the hospital, and called Jenn. We were very lucky with traffic considering we pulled out of our building at 4:30. We chose a good route - Gerrard to River to Bayview to Pottery/Mortimer. We got to the TEGH parking lot in 25 minutes. Jenn had instructed maternity triage to examine me right away. I was 6.5 cm dilated and at station 0. They got me to an L&D room post-haste - "There will be no babies in triage today!" In the car, my contractions had gone to 8 minutes and by the time I was in L&D, they dropped to 5 and then 3 minutes. Luckily, Jenn had been at her office, which is just 10 minutes away. She arrived after just a few contractions and had time to change into greens for delivery. It's really great to have had Jenn deliver both babies; there's something about a trusted friend's voice that is so encouraging and reassuring. There's not much more to the story. It was just about the least "medicalised" hospital birth there is to be had. No IV, monitor, oxygen, anything. Jenn broke my water and stretched out one stubborn section of my cervix and we were good to go. I even managed to keep some semblance of a sense of humour. At one point, Alicia, the L&D nurse, said, "after this next push, your baby will be here." I replied, "Don't make promises you can't keep." But she was right. I think it was the seventh push and the last. Then Dion cut the cord. Jenn didn't even miss out on her Friday night family dinner plans. The surprise ending was Jenn's announcement of a girl. I don't remember exactly what I said but it was something along the lines of, "You're kidding!" We were really, really, expecting the 21st Lew boy in a row. |
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
By request ...
more pics. 4 days old 5 days old with Bak-Bak with Poh-Poh and Gung-GungLabels: 0weeks, bak-bak, gung-gung, Naomi, photos, poh-poh |
Monday, June 22, 2009
Margaret Naomi Lew
 Margaret Naomi Lew (going by Naomi) born Friday, June 19, 2009, 6:11 pm 7 pounds 1 ounce, 20.0 inches   She's so tiny.  Hooray, I made it! Labels: adam, birthday, Naomi, photos |
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Escape!
| Adam now knows that he can escape the crib. He's long been physically capable of it but has never bothered in the past. The sleep bag, which we put on him backwards so that he cannot escape it, was deterring him because he couldn't get his feet over the rail one at a time. Today, he discovered a new method and was coming out of his room as fast as we could put him back in. So, Dion and I took turns silently watching to pre-empt escape attempts. We witnessed the escape technique: a somersault. a front flip? I'm not sure of the correct term. Are any readers familiar with the high bar or the uneven bars? hands on the rail, waist above the rail, head over and below the rail, feet launched up, over the rail, past the head, and downwards for landing It was all we could do to contain our laughter, lest that encourage his gymnastic pursuits. I don't mind discouraging it - he's going to be way too tall to be a competitive gymnast or diver anyway. Labels: 2years, adam, mischief |
Friday, May 29, 2009
big brother in training
 rocking and feeding the baby  feeding the baby a little more carefully  |
belly for number two
 with number two at 36 weeks (out of 40) with Adam at 38 weeks I'm not getting quite as many comments on how tiny I am this time but still some. It still cracks me up though. I haven't been legitimately tiny since about 2 months of age. Even though with Adam I measured the textbook size at every checkup, this time, I'm measuring small enough that my OB sent me for an extra ultrasound around 32 weeks. It turns out that the baby "could not be more average." I left Dion out of the picture with number two just in case he's looking bigger, too. Labels: belly, photos, pregnant |
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Adam's 2nd birthday party
 Thanks for hosting, MacAllisters; for the cake, Auntie Joan; and for the presents, everyone.     Labels: 2years, adam, birthday, photos |
Adam's 2nd birthday morning
 In the morning, Adam, my brother, and I went to the Agricultural Museum at the Central Experimental Farm, aka, to "see some animals." All the usual suspects, excluding chickens (never found out the reason.) But Adam did get to touch a lamb - "nice and soft."     Labels: 2years, adam, birthday, ian, photos |
Fletcher-Patersons on Adam's 2nd B-day
 There may be 4 MacAllisters, 3 Lews, and 2 Hobbses in this group shot but Fletcher-Paterson is the tie that binds. full disclosure: One face is cropped out of another frame and into this one because some three people weren't looking at the camera in that frame but one person was grimacing in this one. It was neither Adam nor Dion. They always take good pictures. Labels: 2years, adam, birthday, Fletchers, photos |
Mischief
 This is one of those times that I became suspicious because it was too quiet. very unusual with this kid. Those are my toothbrush and toothpaste. grrrr. Happily, however, Adam continued to amuse himself at the sink for about 40 minutes while we packed up to go home - we had been staying at my Aunt Joan's in Ottawa for Adam's second birthday and a hockey tournament for Dion. We decided that the socks do match. Not each other, of course, but they do both match the shirt. A good look, I think. Labels: 2years, adam, mischief, photos |
Gingerbread Men
A couple of weeks ago, two strange things happened at our house. 1) Dessert. 2) Arts and Crafts.  As you can see, Adam is in a bit of a Pollock period. Me,I'm stuck in gender stereotypes. Pearls and ties? Are you kidding me?  Labels: 23months, adam, arts and crafts, photos |
Friday, April 17, 2009
Chinglish
| This story has gotten a couple of laughs; so, here it is for posterity.... Adam has just a few Cantonese words and expressions, including "maht" (meaning to wipe) and "maht beibei" (meaning to wipe one's nose). The other day, Adam's nose was running; so, I said, "Come here, please, Adam. Maht beibei." Adam didn't like the idea. He shook his head and replied: "No Mahting!" Labels: 23months, adam, Cantonese, speech, vocabulary |
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Sunday morning at the playground
     Labels: 23months, adam, photos |
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Fever
These pics pretty much sum up the second half of my March Break. sick and clingy Adam.     Long arms are good for self-portraits. Labels: 22months, adam, photos |
Sunday, February 15, 2009
much better, part 2
  We didn't really think the haircut was going to happen but opening Hershey's kisses was an excellent diversion. Labels: 21months, adam, hair, photos |
Sunday, February 08, 2009
much better
 I may be the only person in the world who finds this couch comfortable; it's very tall and firm. But it's perfect for me. It's a couch you sit ON, not a couch you sit IN. I will definitely appreciate this in my third trimester. This couch has almost as much seating space as the old one but its footprint is much smaller. Another bonus is that its height makes our coffee chest exactly the right height for its service as a coffee table. I had a very hard time finding a couch because I wanted all of 1 - leather 2 - contemporary style (or at least not _too_ traditional) 3 - high seat 1 and 3 is a very common combination. 1 and 2 is not too uncommon. 2 and 3 isn't exactly easy to find. but 1, 2, and 3 is exceedingly rare. So, there were a few compromises on appearance to get the comfort. I saw more attractive styles, though this one is fine. The leather is good quality but a lot shinier than most. I decided I could live with that and that it wouldn't even be that noticeable on its own. And actually, the shininess kinda goes with some of our other stuff - like the room screen behind it, which I love more every day. BTW, if you'll take the old couch away - it's yours. Labels: couch |
head shots
Adam co-operated with my shutter-bugging for the first time in a long time. This is what we did instead of going to the barber for that sorely needed haircut. But when he wouldn't let me comb his hair, I knew the barbershop was a write-off. I love this colour on him.     Labels: 21months, adam, photos |
