The Buddha Baby has finally elected to bless us with her belly laugh. Man, it may be the greatest sound I've ever heard. I'm going to try to upload it here, but if you don't find it, it means I gave up and loaded it to the yahoo site (video.yahoo.com) - search for "Alea laugh".
By the way, some of you have astutely noticed that I'm experimenting with spellings of Ahlea Alia Ahlia Alea Alya Ahlya. Anyone wanting to cast a vote on this in the comments section, please feel free. The goal is to find a spelling that most makes you want to pronounce the name AH-lee-ah. The current spelling is in cyrillic alphabet, so the letters don't translate, leaving us free to experiment with wreckless abandon.
At some point I need to write a post about daily life as an American in Kostonai, but today is not that day. Suffice to say that I had a new experience today, after an hour or two of wandering around the open market (our afternoon activity of choice - think of the Moroccan casbah, but with all the merchandise imported from Chess King & Ladybug stores). But back to the experience - I lost feeling in my feet, which I had foolishly clad in only socks and shoes, instead of my wool-lined boots. I could feel the pressure on my leg with each step, but could not actually feel my feet. Fortunately, no permanent damage done - but can you imagine this is only autumn here? How do all the homeless cats & dogs survive the winter?
5 comments:
What a beautiful sound! I love her voice! This computer chair is all about the waterworks for me these days! It just flipflops my heart to hear her and follow your experiences.
- Ahlia seems like it would work - like Dahlia without that pesky D
don't kow if you can use this link: http://www.babynamesworld.com/meaning_of_Aliah.html
- You could try starting with an O maybe, like Olliah
I'm sure you will come up with the best way! Stay warm!
Mel
Love the post. Man it is amazing how cold it is and it is not even winter. I wonder how cold it really gets, YIKES.
I have a very good friend here and her name is Alia. It is a beautiful name. No one has ever had issues pronouncing her name.
Thanks for the updates I really love seeing pictures of your daughter.
Sandi
She has an ADORABLE laugh. Couldn't you just listen to that all day long? There's no better sound in the world than that.
Enjoy every giggle, Mom and Dad!
Love,
Laura C
We love sharing your journey. Your daughter is just beautiful. As for the name pronounciation... this is just our two cents, but we think that having a Y rather than an I might help things out. And Mel's suggestion of using an O at the beginning has crossed our minds as well.
Ahlya or Ollya or Ollia seem like good choices to avoid the chances of people Americanizing it into what they're used to, which would be to pronounce most other spellings as a-LEE-a.
We like Ahlia, as it does resemble the word Dahlia enough that some people might get it, but it still runs the risk of people thinking you meant Ah-LEE-a again.
Hope that helps! I'm sure you'll figure it out! And no matter what pronounciation, she just looks like a very happy baby!
best,
Heather & Rob
I can't stop watching the video. Her laugh is totally infectious. She is so adorable.
As for the spelling of her name, be prepared for her name to be mispronounced no matter what spelling you pick. The harder you try to make it easy, the easier you will make it for people to mispronounce. Never underestimate people's ability to mess up the simplest of things.
I say go with short and simple, Alia or Alea.
That's my vote.
-j
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