Friday, December 17, 2010

What's In a Name?

While being pregnant with this sweet little peanut, my mind was littered with names. I had no idea what her name should be. Of course I had some names that crept to the top of my list only to fall short after a few weeks of consideration.

Finally my list consisted of three names: Cora, Jillian and Charlotte. I was certain it was Cora, then it fell from grace and Charlotte took it's spot. I still wasn't feeling 100 percent about it and that's when Jillian came up. I told everyone I was just going to have to wait until I meet her to know what her name is suppose to be.

The night she was born, she was all kinds of nasty and goop covered. The nurses whisked her over to the weighing table to get her cleaned up only after I got a quick glance of her perfectly spherical head and counted all ten fingers and toes. I hadn't had that bonding moment where I looked into her eyes and announced to everyone in the room that her name is.....

As they were cleaning her up one of the nurses asked what her name is. Before I could respond Theo says, "Charlotte!". I felt like my thunder was knocked out of me, I hadn't had time for my revelation to kick in yet. But I relented and just went with the flow. Once the nurses started to clear the room and leaving Theo and I to ourselves with our new family addition he asks me if 'Charlotte' was okay. I felt that even though he announced it to a room full of nurses that we will never see again and we haven't signed any Social Security papers that the name was already established.

It's still hard for me to call her Charlotte, not because I don't love the name, but because I feel like she was suppose to be called something else. Unfortunately it isn't one of the other 2 names on my list either. I can't be bitter about it because with all our kids I have asked Theo's opinion on their names and he has always left it up to me. Now with our 5th and final baby he really wanted the name Charlotte.

I think I love the idea that he named one of our babies more than any name he could have picked. So Charlotte it is.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Renki the Magical Elf

Do you see him?
This adorable Elf is from the cute kid's book, "The Elf on the Shelf". Some of the girls I teach in my Sunday primary class were talking about it and I remembered hearing about this before. I thought it was such a cute idea that I went out that Monday and got the kit from Books-A-Million for a fun FHE night.

We read the book and named the Elf; Renki. (That's 'Ikner' spelled backwards, Theo's brilliant idea!) We went around the room introducing all the kids. Tobie very cooly replied, "What's up?", Miriam gave an energetic wave accompanied by a giggle, Emma growled at the unwanted attention from the doll and Hannah just sweetly waved.

They believe in this Elf's magic so earnestly that I believe he could have jumped up and done a jig, but that would be against Santa's law, so he sits obediently on his perch and quietly watches the kids while making mental notes to report back to Santa with.

The night went smoothly. The kids were more helpful, more obedient and showed love and courtesy towards one another. If any one of them got out of line, the other would gently remind them, "Renki's watching you.". Which would quickly snap them out of their bout of disobedience.

It was all going well....until it was time to go to bed. When the lights go out, apparently that cute little Santa's helper becomes a minion of the Dark Lord's. It worked out alright as far as the two girls were concerned. They were paralyzed with fear to their beds. But we had to deal with Tobie sprinting across the house to our bedroom as he kept checking behind him to make sure that the possessed doll wasn't following him. Each time we had to chase him back to his room, and each time he came back just to let us know how much "dolls that move FREAK ME OUT!".

After a night of sleeping on our bedroom floor, he has gotten use to the idea of Renki. All the kids have, and they love waking up the next morning having to find where his next sitting spot will be.

Even though I'm glad that they got used to Renki, that also meant they got used to his presence and their true natures have come out already. That slight reminder that Renki is watching, doesn't hold as much power as it did at the beginning of the week. Oh well, I guess that's better than thinking Renki is out to bite their legs off or something gory like that.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Nearing the End

As I get closer to the end of my pregnancy I get less and less motivated to make a posting. Mainly because I have no pictures to share. I may one day get around to posting some of the random pictures that my Theo has taken, but right now my brain isn't functioning on all cylinders to stay focused as I wait for the pictures to load and then come up with some informative description of what is happening in said pictures.

When the new baby comes I guarantee that there will be pictures.

On another note about pictures, I have always been envious of people who take awesome pictures to post. It makes me wish that I could be there participating in their picturesque holiday. But then I see that one picture of the questionable Uncle, or the Grandmother that I know uses too much Dollar Store powder on her face and I wonder;

"What do they smell like?"

And then my curiosity is curved. What can I say, I'm a smeller. I will hold my breathe when walking past questionable looking people just so their smell doesn't penetrate my nostrils.

Am I the only one that does this?