Baby's name

27 Apr 2017

10:25pm

I still call him baby. He's 14 months old and we're all still doing it – daddy and big bro Rafy too. Poor kid wasn't named till the very last moment, no wonder it stuck! My friend laughs at how long it took us to decide on his name, seeing as we knew the sex from the 20 week scan. We took the maximum six and a half months available, and I was scrutinising online lists at 3am, the morning of the naming appointment. Boys names are so hard! At 3 days old, Rafy (Rafael) should've been Levi when that coin was flipped!

It was during a night feed and I stumbled upon six new names without meaning to even look. How had we missed them? Thought we had pondered and argued over every boy's name that existed! I texted them to hubby right away (lying next to me in bed), as it's the only way I can get him to 'listen' to me sometimes! When he woke up, he actually liked Huxley... we finally agreed on a name, after half a year of throwing names around.

Just in the nick of time – the appointment was at 10:30!

And so it remains. Sometimes he is Huxley, but usually "Baby". Surely not as bad as Ben's mum though – she calls her nearly-4 year old, Baby! He may be an only child, but is the same age as my Rafy, and I couldn't imagine calling him that!

It's probably a cultural thing. I know surprisingly little about the Chinese culture, despite being born to fully Chinese parents and Cantonese being my initial language, although not my best nowadays. It might have something to do with being brought up in Bonnie Scotland since the age of one. But they do like to call their kids in chronological order rather than actual names. The first born is No. 1, the baby is inevitably called Baby. Such a weird form of respect!

Today, baby has been totally cute and really into TV. I know I shouldn't be rejoicing at that but he claps whenever his bus song is on – it's utterly adorable! I think I'm a bad mother when this sort of thing happens. The guilt is hugely overwhelming but somehow not enough for me to press that off button. And remove the iPad.

Kids have been restless – baby kept hitting his head and falling over. Rafy kept annoying him and stealing his toys :(. I had to put that TV on for some sanity and 'peace'...

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Mug of Whine

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