Hail all ye be a’wakin’! The naming be done, lads, and our wee sprite she does have… a name!!

On Friday, the 13th of October (!), at 17:43, was born unto the lot of us one Shione Ogata Rollins. 2960 grams and outfitted well, she is a welcome addition to our little nuclear family. Send her your best wishes for health and long life. She’s looking forward to seeing you soon.

For you Japanese-capable folks out there, her name is written:

渚音

（シオン、なぎさ＋オト）

Cool, eh? Kind of gives the fambly an oceanic, resort theme. However, this means my previous post now seems a bit, er, stupid, what with me showing up with a name that’s new in any langauge. (Actually, Shion is a fairly common girl’s name in Japan, but written with different kanji, 詩音.) I guess maybe uniqueness goes a long way after all…

Rie sent this today and what a great shot it is! Mia was worrisome at first, seeming to see Shione as a major threat, but now? A big sister at 26 months. 良かったね～。

This is a temporary post and will be removed promptly. I want to get your input via comments on the name we have chosen and, more specifically, how best to write it in English so the pronunciation is preserved. The name we have (very likely) chosen for Dear Daughter 2 is Shion (渚音、シオン), comprised of kanji which mean beach and sound. The pronunciation is shee-ohn, the syllables of which rhyme with tea and phone. Now, the questions remains: how to write it in English? Some options:

• Shion
• Shone
• Sheone
• Shione
• Seone
• Shyon

I lost the ability to be objective about these things a long time ago. What do you think? Which is the least ambiguous and best at conveying the pronunciation accurately? Or just looks best? Your vote counts! So please leave a comment and/or discuss amongst yourselves. We’ll be off to sleepyland shortly, but would love to wake up to some well-considered guidance! Anyone? Anyone?

Okay, folks, I finally found the right setting in WordPress to enable comments, so… post away!

It’s 2 in the morning and I should really be off to bed, but I just finished working and wanted to get some more photos online before calling it a night. Today (yesterday) was Rie’s birthday and we spent much of the day together at the hospital (she’ll be there for 5 days following the birth which is customary here) and then joined her parents for a take-out sushi dinner in the hospital cafeteria. (Sounds worse than it was, I suppose. The sushi was great and the cafeteria only serves our wing of the fouth floor.)

Dear Daughter 2 (still unnamed, sorry) spent the day sleeping and crying, with food breaks every three hours. She seems genki and healthy, but is at the same time remarkably frail and oh-so light. She is much smaller than Mia was at birth, and I find myself fretting for her well-being each time I look in on her or cradle her in the crook of my arm. Mia was so perfect and robust, muscular from day one, really, and her little sister seems to be in comparison little more than a wisp. Her skin is so fragile, and her long, thin legs seem almost warped below the knees. The hint of a rash can be found all over her tiny frame. I hold her and worry for her terribly, but most likely only because I’ve forgotten what newborns actually look and feel like.

Mia, predictably, has been more than a little traumatized by the new arrival, and balks at entering the hospital room each time we approach the door. When I start to change her sister’s diaper she’ll try to draw me away by grabbing my leg and shouting, “Pa-paaaa!” over and over again. We keep trying to re-inforce the idea that she has a little sister now and thereby induce some feeling of ownership and responsibility (her favorite thing), and that seems to have helped a bit. Nonetheless, the loss of her coveted position at the center of the universe has been unsettling at best. Let’s hope she copes with it all okay.

That’s all for now. I must sleep or pay the price tomorrow. Her are today’s shots of Mia and… her sister. Be well, speak soon.

I’ll need to keep this short as I’ve got to return to the hospital shortly. Wanted to upload a couple of quick pix for you, here they are. She-that-remains-yet-unnamed arrived on Friday, the 13th of October (two days before her mother’s birthday) at 17:40, weighing in at a svelte 2960 grams (6.5 pounds). Labor went smoothly, all things considered, and Rie is resting up at hospital now. Thanks for all the well-wishes and good thoughts. We’re happy it’s finally over!

Been at the hostpital here in Kumamoto since about 05:45 this morning. Off to a slow start but things are definitely moving forward now! Watch this space for an update later today sometime (I hope…)

I realized that one of the reasons why I had become so loathe to blog anything was my dissatisfaction with Movable Type. Over the weekend I migrated over to WordPress in an extremely painless process facilitated by my ISP Intermedia, and while I was at it also installed a photo gallery program so I don’t have to keep uploading images through some clunky blog interface. The export/import process was super easy as well, making me wonder why I didn’t do it earlier. Because this installation of WP is a “hosted application” provided by the ISP I don’t have complete control over the design and interface, but images and basic CSS are available for tweaking so I’ve been playing with those to get the UI in shape.

Anyway, it’s Monday and another busy week. I’ll be heading to Kumamoto at the end of the week to join Rie and Mia as we head into Baby Countdown again. She’s not due until late in the month, but all indications suggest she’ll be early, and so will I be in getting down there. Looks to be an exciting trip…