Saturday, January 27, 2007

This one's for you, Hsin.

Apparently that last posting was a bit heavier than I'd intended, so here's a cute little pudgelett to take the edge off: my niece. Yeah, I know -- you think your baby is the cutest baby in the world, but unfortunately you'd be wrong, as I'm sure you'll have to admit now that you've seen mine. In this shot she was singing an aria to milk, glorious milk. She has a five-octave range, especially at night.

My sister has a four-syllable name (Elizabeth) and gave her baby a four-syllable name (Alexana, last two syllables rhyming with "sauna"). I love my sister, but not enough to spend four syllables of my time on her -- she is "Liz." I love my niece, but the same applies. As I'm not the biggest fan of "Alex," I've settled on "Zana." If you can think of a good one-syllable alternative, I'm all for conserving my Precious Time. That's why I blog, after all ;)

Zana's still little, and I only see her on weekends, so I don't have a lot of great anecdotes yet. I was present for her birth, which was amazing. I only got in on a technicality -- someone had to hold the video camera, apparently (!!!), but it was an honor nonetheless. And a good case for epidurals. And a bad case for Intelligent Design.

When October rolled around and Sharon and I were planning our Halloween party, the question arose of the all-important First Halloween Costume. Liz, who has a sense of humor, reasoned that the baby played a cute little bug every day of the year, so for Halloween she of course needed to come as the complete opposite of pink, cooing babyness. What would that be, you ask? A psychotic Jack Nicholson, of course! I sewed her a little straitjacket costume and she came to our party with spiked hair, in the custody of her mother (a rather smiley Nurse Ratched). My mother has not forgiven me for aiding and abetting in the uglification of her first and only grandbaby. But as lobotomy patients go, she was quite adorable. And she loved the party, even though it was past her bedtime -- she didn't cry when the giant Twinkie walked in with the priest, nor when confronted with a gruesome electrocution victim, nor even in the face of Death himself.

Zana is going to be completely insane. She will fit right in.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I was so honored that my name made it in the tagline of one of your blogs, I felt that I had post something! Alex is super cute in her little straitjacket and Liz looks a lot friendlier than the nurse from the movie. Maybe I should start a blog too? I was thinking of calling it "IMHO" (In My Hsin Opinion), heh, heh.

Marie said...

Ha! Do it! The world is sadly lacking in blogs about Audrey Hepburn, Green Gables, and Mary Poppins that are written by high-powered lawyers. ;) I would try very hard not to leave long obnoxious comments, but I won't promise anything at this juncture.

Tonight I'm attempting to make chutney for the first time. I'm such a junkie I thought I could save money by learning how to make it myself. It's simmering right now, and doesn't want to reduce down to the consistency I'm after. I wish you and Ramesh were here to give me some pointers. Maybe you could blog about cooking, too, just for me.

Marie said...

He IS cute. Is he a good singer, or just the next Andrea Bocelli?

wynne said...

She is a darling.

However, Marie, do NOT forget that I made MY claim first--in my son's name--to have you as his fairy godmother. Being an aunt is nice and all, but we had you FIRST.

Marie said...

Fear not -- J's bare bottom and the halo of rubber duckies are still on display where they have always been. No niece or nephew (unmarked form: "neefew") will ever oust him from his place of honor.

Speaking of which, watch for a package. Spacey little Merriweather has been remiss in her fairygodmotherly duties, but will atone.