Baby Naming - Simchat Bat

[mamadeb]

jonbaker put together a nice little ceremony, adapting things from the Sphardi tradition and shul namings. We tried to make it as little like a brit as possible (the point of a brit is, besides the minor surgery, to welcome the boy into the covenant. Girls enter the covenant when they are born.)

As I said, her English name is Winifred Celia (Wynn). Instead of trying to figure out a Hebrew equivalent for her first name, they just went with Tzivia, which was the original Celia's Hebrew name. Tzivia bat Melech Baruch v'Nechama Shifra. (We also had a discussion about her big sister Zoe, who was never named, but it turns out her middle name is Alonit, which is Hebrew name enough. Jocelyn comes from a completely non-religious family, none of whom were present, and was basically named at her wedding.)

All of us played some part, even me - I got to read a longish blessing in English over both Wynn and Zoe. We offered a part to a cousin who happens to be a rabbi, but she turned it down. And I got to hold Wynn for a long time - letting her wiggle in my arms. *smile*



Mitchell couldn't figure out what they needed. I made a cardigan for Zoe as a big sister gift, and a pair of baby socks for Wynn. Zoe loved getting a gift just for her. It's not perfect - the buttonholes are a mess - but Jocelyn was impressed. And baby socks are always cute.

And. Well. There's always this thing about baby events - all the women who have had or are having babies stand around and talk about babies. And childbirth - lots about childbirth. And every woman in that room was a mother, except for the one expecting her first child.

And me.

I sort of avoided the living room for a bit - which meant I saw Zoe going into the bedroom and curling up, completely overwhelmed by a house full of near-strangers, a baby sister taking all of her parents' attention and crying a lot, the end of kindergarten and an impending trip to spend all summer at the farm. So I played with her and that seemed to help.