Loretta Loving

Ok. It's time. Our mathematical equation to name our child has remained a secret long enough.

When we got pregnant with Charles we instantly started brainstorming names for boys and girls, and at the time the only tiny reason I would have liked a girl was because naming her seemed like an easier task. Naming a boy had some challenges but we seemed to like the same names for girls. But, Charles is Charles and we wouldn't have it any other way. Ironically though, when we found out about our little surprise we couldn't agree on a girls' name to save our lives. So, every bone in my body hoped we'd have a third boy.

Well, surprise again - it's a girl :) I can say that while we are both intimidated and scared and anxious, we are very, very excited. I think austin would even say he wouldn't change it if he could! But, that doesn't mean naming her was easy. We were kind of dead locked and really just lacking much motivation so we had to come up with a system. (Err, I had to come up with a system. Austin was fine waiting)

I would have bet money that no matter what system we came up with, her name would end up Elizabeth Loving. (Bet you can't guess where my vote was!) Elizabeth is the middle name of my cousin who has been one of my closest friends my entire life, it's classic and beautiful, and it just conveniently fell in line with our royal theme. But, we weren't in agreement so we came up with a method.

We each chose 6 girl names and wrote them on a paper. Then we each got to cross off one name from each other's list so we were left with 10 names. We actually only had 9 because Elizabeth was on both of our lists, so again I assumed that was the name we would end up with. Once we had 2 lists of 5 we each ranked both lists 1-5, 1 being our favorite and 5 being our least favorite. This quickly knocked the list down to 5 names because a lot of them were low on both scores. The top names, mathematically, were:

Mary

Elizabeth

Aurora

Samantha

And I can't remember #5. Notice nowhere on the list is Loretta, as neither of us had even uttered the name before. I said we should just sit on it awhile but Austin said 'well Mary wins why not Mary?' (It was conveniently #1 on his own list, mind you) 

We had already agreed the middle name would either be Loving or Aurora, but were both pretty set on Loving, so he kept saying Mary Loving.

Well, Mary Loving was my grandmother which is awesome - but as days went by I felt a little guilty that of the 6 names we would give our kids, 4 would come from one side of my family and 1 would come from his. So while he kept saying Mary I just wasn't sure.

Then it occurred to me - what if we found out what his grabdmother's middle name was? She had just recently passed away and I thought maybe it'd be neat to have both names be a grabdmother's middle name. We asked his mom, because he wasn't sure, and when she told me I just loved it. I asked him what he thought of Loretta Loving and his eyes lit up. And the final judge: william instantly approved.

It's not a very common or traditional name, it's a little old fashioned and a little country (thanks to Loretta Lynn) but we both loved it the moment it came up which is how we knew it was what her name was meant to be.

So while our math didn't quite add up to a winner, it did get us there. No more than 4 weeks from yesterday we will be holding our baby girl, the baby we never knew we wanted but can't imagine not having. Loretta Loving.

Moving Monday Part 4 (or 3...)

Oops. April sucks. No explanation.

But - our house is under contract! It was on the market for 48 hours and we had 9 offers. The lowest offer was $500 above our asking price.

If I had more time I'd write about how incredibly overwhelmed, excited, nostalgic, shocked and blessed we feel. For now, the adjectives will have to do.

17 days from now our first home will belong to someone else, and 18 days from now we will not have a penny of debt to our names. It's bittersweet for sure, but definitely more sweet than bitter.

William Wednesday

What??? Yep, I'm here on Wednesday to talk about my sweet baby william.

Who is 5, and huge and not at all a baby. Except when he sleeps. 

I've always known william was a talented sleeper, but I don't think I really valued it until I had my sweet precious sleepless Charles. Before I complain too much, I know Charles has overall been a good sleeper. Once we got past 6-8 weeks he slept pretty much through the night every night. He stirs easily, and any noise can wake him - but for the most part he slept.  Lately though I've decided he hates for me to sleep, so he peacefully sleeps from 7:00 until whenever it is that he hears me winding down. Some nights that's 9:30, others it's midnight. But he just patiently waits until that moment before he decides to wake up in a fuss needing something or another.

Why not let him cry it out? Well, mostly because that doesn't really help my sleep situation any more than coddling him and in my exhausted stuper I just want the fastest path to sleep. But also because charles and william are now sharing a room and we don't want to end up with 2 kids up at midnight!

Oh wait - william Wednesday. That's what we are here for. William. How dare I digress from my first born?

Luckily so far the crying hasn't woken him which is just amazing. Every morning it leaves me more and more thankful for his ability to sleep through a hurricane.

He is as stubborn as ever. His latest gem of a story involves a 45 minute hold out, refusing to politely ask me to give him the pastry in my purse. Wanna hear it? You know you do.

On Saturdays during tax season william likes to come to my work with me. I usually work about 8-5 depending on the weekend, and he comes from about 8-12. He plays legos or cars or watches shows, but I think mostly he just enjoys being with me. At work we have Saturday breakfasts hosted by different people each week, but my little finicky mini-me eater won't eat most of it so I usually either feed him at home or grab him something on the way. Two weekends ago we had to stop at target to get 2 birthday presents (for his jam packed agenda) so I offered to get him a pastry at Starbucks. That was my first mistake and I take full responsibility.

So we are in line and we notice the selection is limited. Then we have this conversation:

Mommy can I have the lemon pound cake?

No william, because you won't eat it. You only want the icing.

No I will eat it.

Every bite?

Yes I like it all.

Ok.

Second mistake. Don't ever trust a manipulative 5 year old trying to get sugar. I bought it and as I was going to hand it to him he said 'mommy, I can share it with you. We can split it'

Well, I'm no fool. I know how he would have wanted to split it. Break it in half so that all of the icing is on one side, which he'd conveniently take. Proud of my ability to con a con artist, I broke the pound cake in half lengthwise, evenly splitting the icing.

You would have thought World War III broke out right there in the target in Marina, CA. He. Was. Mad.

I took the pound cake back and put it in my purse, letting him know when he decided to calm down, figure out what he needed to say to me, and ask politely for his food and milk he could have them but until then I was done talking to him. This ensued the quickest target trip ever, followed by 20 minutes in the car driving to my work listening to 'mommy, you HAVE to feed me. It's the law. I'm HUNGRY. You have to give me my food. You are not listening to me...' And on and on.

I quietly let it go on until about 5 minutes before we got to my office when I let him know, 'William, we are almost at my work. You can not behave this way at my work. If I have to call dada to come pick you up he is going to be very upset and you will not be going to Jordan's pirate birthday party. This is your choice. If you are hungry, you will find a way to politely get your food. Until then, I would recommend you stop your tantrum  unless you want to lose the parties of the day'

'But I don't know HOW to politely ask'

'Well, then I guess you're not that hungry'

He rode silently the rest of the way and when we got into my office we had this exchange:

William, come with me to the room to get my food.

But I don't want anything in there I can stay in here.

Ok. I'm taking my purse and closing my door, don't leave.

Why are you taking your purse?

Because I'm not leaving your food and milk in here to tempt you.

Oh. Ok. I will come with you.

We got my breakfast and then about 3 minutes after we got back to my office I won. My stubborn resolve beat his and did an interla victory dance as he quietly said, "mommy, can I please have my pound cake and my milk?"

Why yes, yes you may.

The rest of the day was enjoyable for everyone and both boys had fun at the pirate birthday party.

So, while William may push my limits during the waking hours, testing my own stubbornness and manipulation, he gives me rest between the hours of 8pm and 7am. For that, I am more thankful each and every day.