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Monday, August 31, 2009
summer holidays 2009
We were fortunate to be able to go to Holland and escape the summer heat & humidity of Tokyo.
It was the first time for the three of us to travel together, and for Mayra a time to meet some of the family in Holland.
We had a wonderful time.
To me the highlight of these holidays was to be close to Mayra for days on end, as opposed to only a few hours when I’m working. It gave me the opportunity to witness how my daughter discovers the world one bit a time… the beach sand; the sea and the fun of swimming in cold water on a hot summer’s day; the colourful flowers; birds and puppy dogs and a multitude of other things. Things that we hardly notice during our busy lives. It is such a joy to experience life through the innocent eyes of a curious child. The simple things in life are often the best-- no question about it.
Thursday, April 02, 2009
the name game
Mayra Dilan Viasus Zoet
For those of you who didn’t know yet, that’s the full name of our precious girl.
We’re being asked often what the meaning is (of Mayra) and how we choose her names, so here goes an extended entry on the topic.
Choosing a name for our baby was a fun challenge. We started working on it about halfway through the pregnancy, though my list of baby names already came to existence many years ago (...!), always adding whenever I came across a nice one. Manuel and I agreed that we both would compile a list of 10, one for boy and one for girl. Then we’d compare the lists, create a shortlist of it and choose from there.
Nice concept but it didn’t quite work out that way. By the time it was time to start comparing lists, M had *one* name, and I had, as you might suspect, maaaaany. We ended up selecting a shortlist of my list, then adding new names, followed by re-creating the shortlist. And that a couple of times more until we narrowed it down to about 4 options per gender.
We wanted to meet our baby first and decided on the names the day after she was born. ‘Mayra’ jumped out to both of us. ‘Dilan’ is for added spark.
Inspiration
The list of names was a compilation out of name books (disappointing results...), the internet, but mostly from the Olympics 2008 and from watching movies—great to see many names coming by in the credits! Both the name Mayra and Dilan are from characters in a documentary and movie.
Requirements
One other challenge were the requirements. Manuel only had one: the name must sound beautiful. I agreed and added the following:
• must be pronounceable without problems in at least Dutch, Spanish, English and Japanese (speaking from experience!)
• has to be unique, at least not conventional
• must go well with the middle- and surnames
• should look good when spelled (I am a typographer after all. Love the letter ‘Y’)
• and the name should have a positive meaning
Speaking of the latter, it turns out that there are plural (international) meanings for both Mayra and Dilan:
MAYRA (pronounce mah-ee-rah)
Australian-Aboriginal: spring wind
English: beautiful
Irish: variant of Maire (Mary); star of the sea
Latin: myrrh, unguent (balm, ointment)
Hebrew: rebellion, overthrow
Gaelic: form of Mary; bitter
Spanish: form of Maria (Mary)
DILAN (pronounce dih-lan)
Welsh: born from waves; born from the ocean; son of the sea (spelled ‘Dylan’, originally a boy’s name)
Irish/gaelic: like a lion; loyal; faithful
Kurdish: to dance
Turkish: full of heart, full of fullfilling desires
VIASUS ZOET (pronounce vee-ah-soos zoot)
Following Latin-American tradition, and because we like the fact that it indicates our daughter is indeed a child from the both of us, we decided to give Mayra both our family names.
Viasus has no particular meaning. Zoet is Dutch for ‘sweet’.
So there you have it. Mayra Dilan Viasus Zoet: our beautiful daughter born from waves, full of heart, our sweet little rebellion.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
mayratalk
Mayra has started babbling her own language. It mostly consists of “gheeghee, googoo, ghaaaaa” at the moment, and she tells us her stories with a very serious and convinced look in her eyes. So cute. It’ll be interesting to see how she will cope with the trilinguality (is that a word?) of our English-Dutch-Spanish household. Anyway, that’s still months away. Until then we speak Mayratalk.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
mayra 2 months!
Our girlie turned 2 months today. Incredible how time flies, and how fast Mayra develops.
She is very curious and loooooves being walked around so she can see things. With as a result…
Monday, March 09, 2009
hungry
Mayra Dilan at almost 8 weeks. Since a couple of days we have a new way of finding out that the little lady is hungry!
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
mohican anyone?
Don’t know how or why, but Mayra’s hair has been standing up straight. No need for gel! Curly when wet though.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
first cherry blossoms
Mayra, Nicolette and I went for a walk in Rinshi-no-mori Koen, our local park, where we spotted some sakura trees (cherry blossoms) blooming early. It’s still cold, but spring is upon us!
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
from a proud dad
Although is a cold and wet winter’s morning here in Tokyo, our home is filled with love and all the warm wishes we have received from all of you. Thank you from the three of us. Mayra is a happy little bundle who enjoys breast milk on demand, peeing while not wearing diapers, taking long naps and falling asleep in the arms of mum or dad.
She has been officially recognized by the Japanese government as being born here although that does not make her a Japanese Citizen. Our precious will soon have her own visa, multiple entry permit and dual Australia/Dutch nationality, even though she has not yet been anywhere apart from the Birth Center or our home in Fudomae.
Mayra’s birth was one of the most amazingly beautiful experiences I have ever had in my life. Mayra’s first few minutes of life in her new world were spent under water, gently and curiously looking around. Then slowly she was brought to the surface and after a couple of coughs she took her first breath of air. After we got out of the pool, Mayra was placed on Brechtje’s chest and the two of them rested and bonded after their amazing team effort which lasted 14 and a half hours.
I remember wondering at the time why we had waited so long to have a baby, and also looking forward to reliving this experience if we are blessed with more kids.
All of this was possible thanks to Brechtje for choosing to give birth the way nature intended--without any painkillers or medical interventions. In the end this proved to be the right decision for us and made this experience so much more special.
We have uploaded some pictures so you can see for yourselves how Mayra’s birth unfolded: our photos at flickr.com
Thanks again