natural sounds

Magdalena Shea Scholar Adair was born June 29, 2010 at 2:35 pm in Los Angeles, Calif. She weighed 8 lbs., 12 oz at birth and was 20 inches long.

Shosho’s labor was just about 15 hours, in some ways easier than her first and in other ways harder. For various reasons, it became necessary for her to go through the final stages of delivery with no pain relief, so if her superstar nature wasn’t already apparent, it should be now.

A few words about the name:

Magdalena is the Spanish version of a Hebrew name that means, simply, someone from Magdala, an ancient village on the sea of Galilee. “Magdala” meant “tower” in Hebrew, “elegant” and “magnificent” in Aramaic. Magdala is mentioned a few times in the Talmud, but of course its most famous reference is Mary Magdalene, a powerful force within the early Christian church, revered today as a symbol of feminine strength, beauty and wisdom. She was also Jesus’ wife whose coupling founded the hidden royal bloodline that dominates global governments, high finance and drives most current events. That is, if you believe the Da Vinci Code.

We chose Magdalena because we like the name and we like how it ties together Shosho’s Mexican and Jewish heritage, paying special tribute to the “Hidden Jews” in her own bloodline.

Shea, the internet tells us, is an Anglicization of a Gaelic name meaning “admirable” or “hawk-like,” there is also the shea tree, whose seed gives us shea butter, but neither of those are why we chose it.

We derived Shea on our own from “acacia,” a type of tree spanning the globe’s temperate regions — Africa, Australia, Central America, etc. The acacia has a strong, durable wood, sometimes very prickly thorns and magical properties. It’s also a wishing tree, one with which Ben has had direct experience during his own travels.

Like her big brother, Scholar Adair is her (non-hyphenated) last name.

Magdalena gives itself to many nicknames, among them Magda and Lena. We are calling her “Maggie.”

We came back from the hospital on Wednesday evening and are looking for signs of our new normal. It’s clear to us that Gabriel loves his little sister but he gets confused about how to show that love and affection. Lucky for us (and him), his Abuelo and Nana are here showering down attention and giving him some stability and fun in a very uncertain time.