Carter Phuong!

2011 is the Year of the Cat on the Vietnamese zodiac calendar. On March 30 in this year of the Cat, my second nephew, Carter Phuong was born. I'm calling him "meo", Viet for "cat". I might've gone for "meo con" but Trav thinks "kitten" is too girly, tee hee.

For a long time, C. Trinh and A. Travis couldn't come up with a name, so we had been calling the little bump in the belly "Spike". At the baby shower, we played a name game, and the winner was "Carter", Travis's grandmother's maiden name. Phuong is, of course, Ong Ngoai's first name.

I happened to give Trav a call while driving home from Harrisburg on a Wednesday night. "What's new?" They were on their way to the hospital. "Already!?" The due date wasn't until next weekend, but the process had unmistakably begun. I zipped off the next exit, stopped at Wawa for hoagies and newspapers (yes, I did - childbirth can be a long process), and took the elevator up the same second floor where we waited all night and day four years ago for MK to make his own way into our world.

A jovial nurse greeted me in the triage room. "False alarm, little sister. You guys are goin' home. I'd say this little guy isn't coming for another day, maybe two." She was hedging against our obvious impatience, as Carter came along much sooner than she predicted. At home, no one got any sleep. MK and I stayed up late waiting and waiting. We were back in the hospital, ready for the real thing by 7AM.

Carter was born at 8:35AM, a tiny little dude at 5 lbs. 13.1 oz, but loooong at 21". He cried a lot, especially when they put antibiotic goop in his eyes. At home, in my sister's words, "he's so chill". He's quiet and loves to investigate the surroundings with his big beautiful dark eyes. Interestingly, his eyebrows are blond on the outer edges, and black like the rest of his hair in the middle. He's got sausage toes to match his brother and poppa, and has beautiful hands like his momma. Sometimes he scowls and looks like an angry old man. It's hilarious! He's drawn quite a crowd lately - hanging out with big brother, cousins Alice and Kelly, Pop Pop and Mom Mom, Ba Ngoai and Ba Co, Ut, and Alex. Spoiling will commence when Uncle Joe arrives in May - hooray!

rockin' out with the binkie


hanging with big brother