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CUTEST BABY OF THE PLANET 2009 – FINALIST January 19, 2010

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Hannah , comments closed

 

Woohooo!!!  My little Hannah has been shortlisted as one of the 20 finalists for the Cutest Baby of the Planet 2009 contest.

So what does she have to do as a finalist, you ask?  Nothing, except be cute and look adorable at all times…not too difficult for her, I would say!

But it’s the Mommy who has a list of things to complete now. :)  

Mom Bloggers Planet, the contest organizer has come up with a few *challenges* for us to perform, and all in a matter of just THREE days!  Hehe…hope I ace those challenges :)

What is the meaning of your baby’s name?

I’ve actually *answered* this question before but it was done in my kids’ blog.  So I’m just gonna copy and paste the answer here now.

When we found out we were gonna have a baby girl, we had already pretty much decided on the name Hannah.  I have loved the name Hannah since I was a schoolgirl, and it was only apt that I name my daughter as such.  We definitely wanted a Biblical name and one that is meaningful both for us and for her.  And we also wanted a name that’s not too common.  That’s why we chose Hannah, which means Favored (or Favored by God), or Grace.    In Biblical context, Hannah was one of the wives of Elkanah, and she was blessed with six children, one of whom was Samuel, the glorious warrior and judge of Israel.

With the Christened name decided, it was time for the harder part: deciding on a Chinese name. 

Thanks to the internet, while we were in the US, I contacted a friend of mine in Penang to ask her hubby to help me ascertain a good number of strokes for Hannah’s Chinese name, based on her birth year, surname and also Mommy and Daddy’s birth year.  This friend of mine was also the one who helped calculate the number of strokes suitable for Ethan’s Chinese name. 

She then came back with the results, which stated 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 Hannah’s name:

So off to the drawing board we went.  Referring to some Chinese name books we had brought along, we wanted a name that had the water radical or water element in it.  I used the internet to list out the various combinations that would sound good and mean good, meeting all the criteria we had set out, and then we gave the list to another friend of ours in Santa Clara to help us decide or recommend.  After a few tweaks here and there, we arrived at a name that we all thought would be perfect for our baby girl.

We chose the name Xi Ling (Xǐ Ling:  禧泠), which is a combination of 17 + 8 strokes.  Xǐ (禧) meant Joy and Ling (泠), which also contained the water radical, carried the meaning “sound of the water flowing“; and together, Xi Ling (Xǐ Ling: 禧泠) means Joy Overflowing, which Hannah is living up to really well, seeing what a happy little baby she is! :)

So Hannah’s full name is Hannah Chua Xi Ling (蔡 禧 泠 ~ Cài Xǐ Ling), carrying the meaning of Favored by God and Full of Grace, with Overflowing Joy.  Isn’t that a pretty name for a pretty baby? :)

What is ONE of the most memorable moment about your baby since she/he was born until now?

There are many memorable moments for Hannah, but I would say that the one that takes the cake was the very first time she called me Mommy.  It was more like “Mameh!” but still….it would be something I would remember for all time.

Short positive TESTIMONIAL about MomBloggersPlanet

Although I just stumbled on MomBloggersPlanet just a few weeks back, I can tell that it is a very good portal for all parents.  The articles are mostly personal opinions from parents and provide a good sharing platform for not just moms but also dads out there.  Somehow, it is very reassuring to find other people going through the same experience as you are, and you know it’s a great site when you find yourself going, “Hmmmm….yeah, that’s true” and nodding along as you read through.

Definitely a must-visit site for new parents, parents-to-be and also for parents who profess to be experts (because we all learn something new everyday!)

Lil’ Hannah’s shortlisted! January 14, 2010

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Hannah , comments closed

 

A lovely surprise greeted me this morning when I visited the Mom Bloggers Planet blog.

Our little Hannah has been shortlisted as one of the 20 finalists for the Cutest Baby of the Planet Contest 2009!  Woohooo!!!!!

The organizer says that there will be some tasks to be performed next week, but I am not sure what yet.  Nevertheless, I am very proud of my little angel.

Please don’t pinch her cheeks, okay? :)

Cutest Baby of the Planet 2009 January 7, 2010

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Hannah , comments closed

 

No no…we haven’t won yet, but we certainly hope to! :)

Some people (my Mom especially) has been asking me to submit Hannah’s photo for baby contests.  Unfortunately, I have not come across any thus far. 

…Up until last week actually.

I stumbled on the Cutest Baby of the Planet 2009 contest organized by Mom Bloggers Planet and I was thrilled that I still could make it for the submission before the dateline.  The problem was finding the right picture.  And also finding the time to publish a blog entry…

So after some deliberation and discussion (because we are only allowed to submit ONE photo), I decided on the one above.  Simply because when I look at it, it definitely is my little darling HANNAH, and it puts a smile on my face :)

Belated but made with love January 5, 2010

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home, Ethan, Hannah, Parenting & Motherhood , comments closed

I’m not the supermommy people claim I am.

My goal of knitting a little something for my kids kept shifting, but still I was determined to complete what I had started.

I began knitting a pair of babylegs/leg warmers for Hannah (with my Mom *correcting* some parts of the earlier stage) and planned on completing them before the wedding dinner party we were gonna attend in early December, but I only had one side of the babylegs ready then.

Still I persevered.  For Christmas, I told myself.  Amidst late night knitting sessions, and daytime knitting sessions, knitting in rounds with 4 nickel-plated double-pointed needles, where my little toddler would periodically volunteer to *hold your yarn, Mommy* and spin it around and around, I continued my project to fruition.

And about a week before Christmas, I finished the pair of babylegs for Hannah. :)

Then Ethan goes, “That’s for Hannah?” and gave me a puppydog look that would melt the stones in anyone’s heart.

I knew I had to make him something too.

So I decided on a pair of toddler tube socks.  I didn’t want to work on *turning the heel* for a pair of conventional socks and opted for tube socks instead.  These would fit any size too.

I knitted, and I knitted, along the way, I learnt how to do decreases too. 

Two days before Christmas I finished one side of the socks, and frantically started on the other side.

Unfortunately though, no amount of late night knitting would help me finish on time.  But I still continued after Christmas….for New Year, I said.

January the 1st came and went, but still the socks weren’t ready. :(

And only on the 4th day of the New Year, I finally cut the yarn and weaved them through the stitches, and heaved a sigh of satisfaction.

I did it. 

They’re belated presents for my kids, but they were both made with love.

A lil’ miraculous migration March 13, 2009

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Blogging, Ethan, Hannah , comments closed

 

Credits
Elegant word art (miracles take time) from Bethany
Love Bug Paper02 from Redju Designs

A few months ago, as the estimated due date of my pregnancy loomed nearer and nearer, I had an important decision to make.  I was torn between the decision to start a new blog for the new baby in our family, or migrating Ethan’s blog to another one, combining all posts for my kids into one blog.  After some deliberation, my hubby and I decided on the latter, because it would make more sense to publish, say, a vacation post involving the kids rather than duplicating content.

So off I scooted to get the migration done.

Little did I know that there would be so many obstacles that stood in the path of such a seemingly easy task.

At first I exported the XML file from Ethan’s blog to be imported to the new blog.  Creating the subdomain and the new Wordpress blog was certainly a piece of cake, but when I tried to import the file, I realized that there was an 8MB size limit, and the XML I had imported was approximately 8.55MB.  Of course the import failed.

I then contacted my web host and they advised that I would need to restore the database from the old blog to the new blog, and that they would be happy to help me do it.  So that’s what they did.

… or so I thought.

When they told me they were done, I found out that they had actually pointed the new blog to the old one, and now the new blog redirects to the old one, which is definitely NOT what I wanted.  After a few days of them asking me to tweak the blog here and there, I finally managed to find an online tool called the Wordpress Splitter, which was able to break up the huge XML file into smaller bite-size pieces. And when I tried it out, I was so happy that it actually worked!

So that was that… :)

I was pretty pleased with myself for solving that problem.

After importing the entire contents of the blog over, I realized that I wanted to create a new category called Ethan and assign it to all the posts in the new blog, but almost all the tools I found online were not able to do that.  But my days of searching finally paid off when I stumbled on this beauty of a plugin called the Assign Categories plugin.  In just a few minutes, I was done creating the new category and assigning all posts to it :)

I then realized my blogroll had not been imported.  Oh, I know I could manually key in the links one by one, but I knew there should be some importing tool of some sort…a shortcut that would make my life easier…and I found it!  With this, all I needed was to enter the OPML URL in the Import Blogroll screen, and watch as the magic happens.

So, I was nearly done with the importing, but I still had to work on the header image.  I wanted an image that was simple yet creative, and it took me many nights to come up with a header that I was contented with.

I added the finishing touches, edited the theme a little bit here and there, and finally I was ready to unveil my latest blog, with the arrival of baby Hannah!

And it is with extreme happiness and joy that I am proud to invite everyone to bid a warm hello and welcome to Little Miracles, where miracles truly do happen! :)

Say hello to baby Hannah! March 6, 2009

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Hannah , comments closed


Scrap Credits
Day 5 QP from 14 Days of Love from Trixie Scraps Designs
Elegant word art (small packages) from Bethany
Just a Little Love ribbon element from Scrapmalin

Isn’t that the perfect reason for my blog to remain dormant for so long? :)

Last Monday, March 2 2009, my husband and I welcomed a beautiful new addition to our family.  At 2:17p.m., I gave birth to baby Hannah, sugar and spice, sweet cheeks and all, weighing in at 6lbs 11oz (approx 3.04kilos).

Both Hannah and I are doing fine at home now, bonding and breastfeeding being the order of the moment. :)