Ivan's Chinese Name

I have been pondering on what Chinese name I should give Ivan. Though he is a Swede, he is still technically half Singaporean, so I think he should have a Chinese name.

I spent months before Jovan and Angel were born, thinking about what Chinese names to give them. I was reading (yes, READING!) the Chinese dictionary, playing around with many nice (and weird) combination before I end up with their names. Jovan is 劭奕 and Angel is 嘉萱.

Now, stranded on the other part of the earth, and my trusty old, battered Chinese dictionary lying in Singapore (well to be more specific, it's in one of the moving boxes in my brother's storeroom!), I am really clueless! I know that I have basically 3 requirements:

1. To reflect his personality. He is a real happy-go-lucky baby! He will dance to whatever kind of music and he doesn't dance to show off and get praises from anybody. Many times we caught him dancing in the room, kitchen, under the table, any space which he can possibly fit in and when the music is done, he continued with whatever he was doing! He's a real 乐天派! ^_^

2. I hope that he will keep the 劭 like in Jovan's name.

3. The combination should sounds good, means well and look good when written.

For months I have been cracking my brain, testing combinations to no avail. I got frustrated and decided to stop thinking about it for awhile since there is no hurry for him to get one.

Armed with the 3 requirements above, I left for the ski trip, hoping to get inspiration from the beautiful scenery and relaxed mind. I'll probably blog about the trip later) The scenery was really beautiful.

I got sick during the trip, possibly due to some amount of stress and anxiety. So I came home and emailed my friends to ask for suggestions and inspiration. One of my super best friend (she's like a sister to me) came back with a suggestion given by her friend. We both loved it! Now we have a Chinese name for Ivan:

劭恺 - 劭 means admirable, excellent. 恺 means joyful, kind.

What a good name!

Mamma Mia!

I was watching "Mamma Mia" with kiddos the other day. This was the second time kiddos watched it. They watched it first time with grandma and when we suggested to watch a movie that day, they requested to watch "Mamma Mia".

We enjoyed the movie thoroughly, kiddos were even singing along to some of the songs, like "Dancing Queen", "Mamma Mia" and "Waterloo"! Even the smallest one is dancing to the music. My hubby can't stand musical. He and I watched "Mamma Mia" and I ended up so harassed by him that I couldn't focus on the movie! He asked the same questions over and over again throughout the movie,"Why are they singing suddenly?" "How do the neighbours know the dance moves?" Aaarrrggghhhh! Now I have decided to watch "Hairspray" on my own!

My hubby and I were talking about the success of ABBA and we both thought that it is very cool that they are still popular after so many generations and that their songs still work. Pop songs tend to turn corny after awhile when the trend is over but not for ABBA.

Kiddos are now asking to play ABBA songs in car rides as well. Looks like we'll be having the ABBA fever for sometime!