October 2013

Scrap Credits
Blessed QP from Dana’s Footprint Digital Design

Weight

Turns out I had been wrong all along.  At about a week past her 6th month mark, we took Emma for her well-child checkup and she was only 7.1 kilos then.  She should be maybe about 7.5 kilos now, I suppose.

Height/Length

About 61 cm at her 6th month checkup, so perhaps about 63 cm now?

Teeth

2 bottom incisors.

Motor Skills

• Emma can now roll around and move in circles.  She can also inch her way around, and sometimes when she is on her tummy, we can see her lift her butt ever so slightly to move forward.  Sometimes she moves backwards this same way too though.
• Emma can sit unsupported for a few minutes now.  She still tumbles over and loses her balance though, so she still needs constant supervision.
• She can hold objects (like a rattle) and loves to suck on them.
• She loves to “pretend” she can stand when we hold her by the hands.
• I can “almost” give Emma a bath all by myself now, since she can sit unsupported for longer periods of time.
• She has a very strong grip and can hold objects very tightly, including our hands, fingers and my hair (and Hannah’s hair).

Communication and Social Skills

• Says “Mum Mum Mum” and “Ma Ma…” a lot, mostly when she wants Mommy or milk.
• She loves to smile, even at total strangers.  The catch is that she needs to be held by Mommy.
• She is very dependent on me and sticks to me like a stamp to a letter.
• She loves her siblings’ antics and always giggles when she looks at them.
• She loves Bananas in Pyjamas.
• Her favorite place in the world is at home!

Others

• I’ve started using a range of non-steroidal moisturizing creams and balms on Emma, in the fervent hope that her eczema will heal.  I’m also keeping her legs and hands pretty much covered all the time to prevent scratching.  I hope to review this range of products if/when it truly works.
• I put her to bed on her back, but she inadvertently always rolls over and sleeps in a crouching manner with her butt up.  I wonder if it’s okay…hmmmm…

Food and Feeding

Her diet is mostly 100% on Mommy’s milk, although she has tried several types of food thus far, albeit in small quantities.  She sucks and nibbles on the following:

• Steamed carrot sticks
• Soft steamed rice (I’ve only given her red rice so far)
• Banana (she will hold the banana and nibble on it)
• Apple slices
• Pear slices
• Cucumber chips

She’s still learning to feed herself, and she loves to hold a spoon, even a spoon without any food in it.  I’m still going slow on her solids because she has yet to completely heal from her eczema and I’m afraid introducing too many different types of new food might make her eczema flare up again.

Unlike when we had Hannah, we had not come to a firm decision on what we would name our third miracle when we were expecting her.  As soon as we knew it was going to be a girl, there were a few names we were tossing around.

Well, we knew we wanted a name from the Bible, or at least derived from a Biblical context.  However, some of the names, although sounded all right, just didn’t strike the right chord with either Pete or me.  To be honest, the name “Emma” was “not approved” by Pete earlier on for whatever reason, I do not know.  Subsequently, Hannah began naming her soft toys and her bear happened to be named Emma.  So when we started considering “Emma” again, we had to ask Hannah’s “permission” to have her sister share the same name as her bear.  It was a back and forth decision that continued for weeks, and in the end Hannah agreed to change her bear’s name to Olivia if we choose Emma for her sister’s name.  Well, we did…but Hannah’s bear is still Emma to this date. LOL

Anyway, back to Emma. Emma is a name that carries the meaning “Universal, whole or complete”.  It is also considered a Biblical name because it is a name derived from Emmanuel, which means “God With Us”.

Next comes the tricky part of choosing the Chinese name.  Once again, I requested for help from a friend of mine to help in determining the number of strokes which are suitable, and she confirmed that it would be the same as for Hannah the previous time, which meant that based on Pete’s surname, Chua (蔡Cài), there were 4 stroke combinations that would be a good match for the 2nd and 3rd Chinese character for Emma’s name:

• 7 + 18
• 18 + 7
• 8 + 17
• 18 + 7

We didn’t really restrict ourselves to having some form of common character for both our girls so our options were wide open.  However, upon doing some research, we limited ourselves to the stroke count above and also to the criteria that Emma’s name had to contain the “grass” radical (艹), given that she would be born in the year of the serpent/snake, according to the Chinese Zodiac.

I gravitated towards the Chinese character Xǐ (禧), from Hannah’s Chinese name because I really liked its meaning: Joy.  Then I stumbled on this character Yún (芸), and since it fits the stroke count and the radical criteria, I enlisted the help of a few friends to help me look up the meaning.  I found several meanings myself so I was a bit confused.  Turns out this character has several meanings on its own, depending on whether it was used traditionally or in its modern form.  One of its meanings is “To see”.

The combination of Yún(芸) and Xǐ (禧) (8 + 17 strokes) therefore meant “To see Joy”. What a beautiful meaningful name for a beautiful baby girl! 🙂

We are also very pleased that both our girls have a common Chinese character in their names but they are also unique names on their own, with the position of the Chinese character Xǐ (禧) switched.

So her full name is thus Emma Chua Yun Xi (蔡 芸 禧 ~ Cài Yún Xǐ), which carries the meaning God with Us, To See Joy.

Additional trivia with regards to our kids’ names: they are all in a way complementing or completing each other, however you want to look at it.

• Ethan has 5 letters, Hannah has 6 letters and Emma has 4 letters; each one unique and special.
• Ethan and Emma share the same first name initials.
• Hannah rhymes with Emma.