Some interesting facts about Samudra

I was at the consulate in Jakarta today to process Sam's UK birth certificate and passport. That's a 6-hour round trip in the middle of a mentally busy week. Anyway, the time in the shuttle bus was a good chance for a nap and to listen to some less-frequented albums on the iPod. I downloaded some episodes of Freaks and Geeks to watch, too.

I realised on the way back, about GBP300 lighter, that we'd not given our friends and family any foundation to his name, so here are some quick Sam-facts:

• Samudra is Indonesian for 'Ocean'. We didn't realise until after the fact that it is actually rooted in Sanskrit (समुद्र), which is a cool testament to the diversity of the Indonesian language. It is not me projecting my briny tendencies onto the boy - but if he were to be a world-tour surfer, I would happily spend my retirement waxing his boards.
• We chose it because it shortens to Sam (not Sammy), but is not an obviously religious name. It was important that his name, like Anya's, be easy to spell and pronounce for both families. Anya's name is actually Russian/Hebrew in root ('gracious'), but sounds plausibly Irish and - another after-the-fact moment of serendipity - is Sundanese for 'New'. Sundanese is the local dialect spoken in West Java.
• Sam was born on the 10th March and so shares a birthday with Chuck Norris, Osama bin Laden, Robert Llewellyn and many more. Because of the Chuck Norris connection, it is also International Day of Awesomeness.
• He will hopefully grow up trilingual, with English, Indonesian and Japanese. Since Anya was a baby, we spoke both English and Indonesian with her. The rules are that we don't mix languages in the same sentence, and we use both languages as often as possible. As a result, she is fluent in both.

Hesty and I often talk about how we want to raise these two beautiful kids. We know we're fortunate and live a very privileged life. We want the best for them, but we don't want them to be spoiled. We'll be happy as long as they grow up to be decent, compassionate human beings who end up doing something useful in the world. 

Up there's his passport photo - or the raw image of it.  By the time the photographers were ready, he'd decided he needed more sleep.