01.30.2011 -- Funny Kids...

Some things that I don't want to forget:

Lucy calls mayonnaise "homemade." This may be due to a story I recently told Brian about homemade mayonnaise.

Lucy uses the word university for universe, as in, "You are the best mom in the University!"

Today when recounting the nativity story, Lucy got to the part about the inn which was full and said, "Mary and Joseph got to the P.E.M. and it was full, so they stayed in the stable."

Gabe does not like his pants too high on his waist. When he feels his pants are too high, he says, "No Grandma!" Not "No, Grandma!" Although I'm not exactly sure what he means, it comes off as, "I'm not wearing my pants like Grandma wears hers!"

Yesterday, Gabe serenaded me and Lucy. He stood tall on the ottoman and sang our names (and Charlie's), arms wide open, with a lovely vibrato at the end. Maybe the kid has perfect pitch: he tells me, "No singing!" all the time.

Lucy can hardly keep herself away from Charlie. She is drawn to him and fawns over him gently declaring her love for each and every part of him. For example, "I just love the shape of Charlie's head...and his ears (they're so perfect and tiny)!!"

Gabe is a little different: Gabe wants to hold Charlie as much as Lucy does, but he's satisfied with a few second's worth of assisted brother holding. Gabe does croon over Charlie, but he's much more likely to run to Charlie and shout, "Charlie!" or "baby brother!" in his face.

The past few days, Gabe has developed a routine where he stomps around with his chest puffed out saying, "Giant!!" When we move out of his way with fear in our eyes, it makes a huge grin appear on his face.

Charlie

01.16.11 -- A Drop in the Bucket

So much to say.

There's a new person living here. He's very sweet. His name is Charles. He goes by Charlie, mostly.

As for names and naming, I have this to say. Brian and I are either serious rebels or serious ingrates... Why? We have broken tradition. We have given our children (mostly) their own names and no one elses. There is a long standing tradition among upstanding standers of naming people after people. Well, we had a lot of people we wanted to honor by naming our kids after them, but we ended up *not.* Here's my theory: There are so many people that we hope our children will emulate, that we couldn't choose between them all, so we struck out on the less traveled path of names. But really, it comes down to me. I am the one who is so particular about names. I'm almost a little superstitious about them. Well, superstitious wouldn't really be the right word. I can't help but think of the meaning, is all--and the origin, and the sound of the whole name and the initials, etc. And then, of course, there's no accounting for taste. I am a fan of traditional names, and Brian leans more to unusual names. This is why our kids have traditional first names and less traditional middle names. Our thinking was that if they ever start to hate their boring first names, they can always start going by their funky middle names. Another way to see it is that we (I) are (am) not brave enough to give them a truly different name as a first name.

Anyway, there is obviously a lot more for me to write in order to get up to date on things around here--a birth story, for example... But this is what I've got for now.