Uh "O"

John's friend from high school, Mr. O, and his wife have 2 adorable little boys. Interestingly, the oldest is exactly 20 days older than Nat and the youngest is exactly 20 days younger than Jules. Weird, huh?

Anyway, over the years the men have kept in touch and our kids have gotten to see each other a few times every year, regardless of how far we are apart. Now we live in the mens' old hometown, we should see each other even more. This should be especially pleasing to their oldest, Andy.

You see, Andy has been smitten with the idea of Nat-nat for some time. He has drawn maps to her house, calls her one of his "girls of rock and roll" (like on Alvin and the Chipmunks) and made his gramma take him on a recon mission to our new house even before we moved in. We've only known about this apparent affection via his parents' stories - until now.

When they came to visit in February, the kids were a little slow to warm up. Then Andy suggested we have them sit for their routine picture together. Everything was normal (except Joshie wanted nothing to do with it.) Then slowly, Andy slipped his arm around Nat's waist, then cuddled into her shoulder. By the time they left, he had informed us that he couldn't leave her. He "just couldn't help it." By the time they finally cajoled him to the basement door, he had to run upstairs one last time to say goodbye. Nat handled all of it surprisingly well. Maybe a little too well =)

It was too cute and we all giggled about it. At least John tried to giggle about it. Truthfully, I don't think we're ready for all this jazz and if it had been the kid of any other parents, well....

It's All About Perception

"Julsie, do you have chocolate on your face?"

"No. My licked it off. Now my all clean."

The Pressuuurrrre of a name

With each child, John and I seem to struggle - slightly - with choosing a name for our new bundle. For both girls we were dressed and ready to leave the hospital with the baby in the car seat still trying to think of a name.

You may be asking WHY? It's not like the child was sprung on us. We've had months to prepare for this. I don't blame you, I wonder the same thing! {Nat has had a boy's name since before we were even trying and settled on a girl's name a few months ago (Ben and Sara).} If it were just me, maybe. I can be a little bit of a procrastinator, but JOHN?! He is a planner. I mean, a real planner! Why can't we do this?


It's not for lack of trying - books, on-line, the Bible, suggestions from friends, family, and even OB nurse's name tags. When we were having Nat, we thought of almost everything for a girl. I mean everything:
- We had the conventional, like Theresa, Allison, Sydney, Alexis, Kaitlyn.
- The familial, like Grace, Mabel, Louise
- Then we had John's suggestions, like
"Arnolda" (after Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course) and
"Dana" which, in itself, is a fine name. I just think "Dana O'Day" is too much. "Da-na-O-Da-na-O-Da-na-O-Da-na-O-Da-na-O-Da......." Where does it end?
- Then there were the truly clever from my office gang:
A la our favorite vending machine snack: "Frieda" and then we'd have "Frieda O'Day." Like Frito-lay
A la Gwenyth Paltrow and her daughter: "Apple" and then we'd have "Apple O'Day." Like "An Apple O'Day keeps the doctor away!"


Crazy to Common, Sentimental to Silly, we've tried them all. Somehow we did it, and somehow we settled on Natalie Grace and Julia Louise. I am satisfied. Hmmm. I wonder what #3 will be.