go ahead, name my baby
yes. it’s a girl. she’s a she. there’s a her in me.
and, i’m not going to lie, i wanted a girl. i wanted to know right now that i’m not going to have three… four… (okay, i would stop after four) boys in a row. i can’t explain, really, this need to have girls. (does everyone have it?) it’s not that i think rambunctiousness is divided along gender lines. and it’s not that i think puberty with a girl is going to be oh-so-much-fun. it’s… it’s… it’s just that i want a girl. (and, for the record, with henry, i wanted a boy.)
so she’s coming. she’s adorable and relaxed. she rarely kicks. she spends every ultrasound curled up in the fetal position. (well, she is a fetus). in fact, this pregnancy has been so easy-going i forget for hours at a time that there’s anyone in there at all.
well, now that i’ve rambled, let’s get the crux of the matter. i’m at a loss when it comes to naming girls. it just seems so much more complicated to me than naming boys. so, i’m going to let you have a go at it. really. name my baby. you just have to follow a few simple rules. (of course i have rules.)
1. no androgynous names.
her kindergarten teacher needs to be able to look at the roll and know absolutely, unequivocally that someone curtis is a girl.
2. no messing with the alphabet.
i’m not in the camp of people who find that Hs can be thrown in at random, Ys can replace vowels, and Ks somehow make words more feminine.
3. no names from the top ten list of the social security administration.
4. (this is the tricky rule) there has to be a book where a girl with this name appears.
this doesn’t mean that she has to be the main character, but she does have to be a “good guy”–for henry we have the henry series by beverly cleary–i just think it’s important for a kid to pick up a book and get the chance to think, “hey, that person’s a little like me and we share a name”–i mean, where would i have been in life if one of the babysitter’s club hadn’t been named jessica?
there you have it. take a crack. if you name my baby, you just might win a prize. and if you need some inspiration, check out laura wattenberg’s baby name wizard blog. she is the genius of naming.
Filed under motherhood | Comments (6)parenting success
i called my sister and told her i had a Parenting Success. she asked if there is such a thing.
oh, there is.
little hal, lately, has been throwing all his food on the floor. i’ve scolded, i’ve frowned, i’ve ignored, i’ve punished (ok, i’m not good at “punishing”). finally the light went on. i pulled the garbage can next to his little booster chair and said, “darling hal, when you’re finished with the food, put it in here.” he grinned. he gleefully tossed everything on his tray into the can. he begged for another biscuit, ripped it into small pieces, and chucked it in on top of his white bean soup. he laughed derisively.
he now asks for the garbage can when finished with a meal.
and that, my friends, is a Parenting Success.
Filed under life, motherhood | Comments (2)vocabulary
henry is starting to articulate a handful of recognizable words. they are, in no particular order,
clock, teeth, cheese, jesus, shut, show, daddy, hi, this
a useful list. it wouldn’t exactly get him out of trouble in a foreign country, but at least he wouldn’t starve (spiritually or otherwise). i still don’t understand, however, why he doesn’t learn a few really useful words like drink or snack or take me outside and i’ll stop screaming.
lucky us, we’re bagging up that big lexicon tomorrow and taking to the skies. yes, it’s true, i get to spend weeks sitting in the belly of the big western sky, seeing mountains and other tall things. i hope the humidity won’t miss me while i’m gone.
Filed under motherhood | Comments (3)lemon lime
limes were on sale. eight for a dollar. eight. what could i do? i bought eight limes. i wrapped them up tightly in a plastic bag and stuck them in my refrigerator drawer. i can’t decide if i’m waiting for some special occasion, some moment when only limes will do, some cloudburst of fortune when i must have lime after lime after lime after lime. or if i will leave them there until i’ve forgotten my tiny round perfectly greenish yellow limes. until i’ve utterly forgotten that limes were practically free, practically begging me to take them home.
it seems like i’m changing the subject, but we had an ultrasound the other day. i say “we” even though i’m not sure who “we” are. is “we” me and joe? or is “we” me and the baby? or do i say “we” just to make it sound less like i had an ultrasound for appendicitis and more like i’m full and ripe and gestating?
however you add it up, we had the ultrasound. and i saw the baby. my tiny lime-sized wonder, twelve weeks brewed. wiggly arms. wiggly legs. ears, all indistinct and adorable. perhaps a nose, but it was hard to tell. and that long thick cord of a tube that connects me to my tiny lime person.
maybe that’s what makes it hard to eat the limes (all eight of them, snuggled together next to the celery and the granny smiths). i’m feeding my own lime. it seems a strange sort of cannibalism to slice my limes for guacamole or curd. and a strange sort of mothering to keep the limes there in the refrigerator. waiting.
Filed under motherhood | Comments (6)teeth
i know i’m married to an aspiring dentist, but, i am against teeth. henry has been working on his two-year-old molars for about a month now and i’m tired of it. all the screaming. the pouting. the tantruming. the everything is fine but i’m crying anyway - ing. i’m done. i object to teeth.
Filed under motherhood | Comment (1)