Olivia or Ashton

It has been awhile since I last blogged. I was a tad busy at the start of the year, travelling, kick-offs etc and am glad to be back to my normal pace of life. In our last appointment on the 21st of Feb, for some strange reasons I was sweating bullets, not out of fear but out of excitement to know if our baby's name will be Olivia or Ashton.

In every one of our visits, it was like striking lottery. Dr. Siti is undergoing delivery or an emergency... "sigh"..... I can't wait for the day when other patient would need to wait for our baby to be born and I sure hope that it is a good 5 hours.

Anyway, this visit we were no. 6, slackers compared to our no 2 and 1 rating in the first two checkups. When Mei's name was called we were filled with excitement – a chance to see baby’s development once a month. After undergoing the ultrasound the Dr’s response was "The daddy will grow older a lot faster"....it was a sign that Fathers will be even more anxious of the years ahead now that he has a daughter. In that split moment, baby was no longer just "baby" but she now has a gender and a new name - Olivia Yong Kay Li. The question was how did the Dr. determine it so quickly, a slit rather than a bulge. Based on her experience, she is 95% sure that we are going to have a girl. We have no preferences as long as our child is healthy and growing well.

Olivia and Ashton were chosen based on names from Trees, the Olive and Ash Tree, both strong and tall with roots that are well grounded. The origin of Kay Li is actually English, however, since we liked it so much, we decided to use it as a Chinese name and its meaning according to my Chinese Lecturer (Mr. Lei) - Victorious and Beautiful. I guess we will just have to reserve Ashton Yong Kay Jin/Wei Ren for another day - haven't decided on the Chinese name yet. The meaning of Wei Ren has a very strong characteristic to it, Confucius dedicated a whole chapter to its meaning, but that will be another story to tell someday.