Sunday, August 22, 2010

That's Not My Name

Lauren & Rachel love when the boys get in trouble because their middle names get used. To them it seems like extra punishment to hear that middle name. They have no middle name. We wanted them to use Conder as their middle name after they got married, so we skipped the middle name.

Rachel didn't quite understand the concept of the middle name anyway. Anytime she gets mad at someone she inserts Ben's middle name. For example, Mom Gerald or Lauren Gerald-you get the idea.

It drives Lauren INSANE!!!
So one fine day the argument began...

"Lauren Gerald you stop that."
"THAT'S NOT MY NAME! Stop calling me that. That is BEN'S middle name. NO ONE ELSE."
"Then what IS your name?"
"It's Lauren Carl...no wait, I mean Lauren Conder."
"Well then Lauren Carl Conder you stop that."


I almost fell over laughing. Of all the middle names to invent for herself why would Lauren choose a boys name? Since Rachel doesn't have a middle name either we decided to stick with Lauren's theme and dub her Rachel Lenny.

So the not so official role call of names that gets thrown down when the kids are in trouble is:


Lauren Carl

Benjamin Gerald

Rachel Lenny


Hayden Richard

Monday, August 2, 2010

Kicking Bear

When I was pregnant with Hayden, we didn't find out gender on the ultrasound. We thought it would be a fun surprise to wait-which drove a few family members & friends insane-heehee (we also did that with Rachel too).

Since we didn't know gender we knew we needed to have both a girl name and a boy name picked out.
Easier said than done.


We had already used our top two girl names, but Rob & I still managed to agree on Abigail or Ashley. Girl name...Done.

Boy names were WAY tougher. We knew his middle name was going to be Richard, after my dad, but beyond that we were stumped.Anything I came up with Rob shot down for one reason or another. Yet he wasn't contributing anything usable. While Cletus is a great name for a cartoon character or a hound dog, I will NOT use it for our child! He did manage to save me from making the horrifying mistake of naming him Harrison Richard...the nicknames of that combo would have haunted me FOREVER!!!

Oh that funny husband of mine!


We were running out of time, so I asked the kids one day what they thought we should name the baby. Never wise to let the older siblings name the younger ones...you get some kooky names that way!

Ben's answer was a classic...
"If it's a boy name him Kicking Bear. And if it's a girl name her Dancing Cow."

Since we have about 0% Native American in our bloodline I didn't think those were going to fly.

Rob instantly piped up, "Son, learn now that no woman, no matter how small she is, EVER wants to be called a cow". Wise fatherly advice, dear!


Rob & I finally agreed on Hayden Richard (Rob more or less acquiesced since he couldn't come up with something better).

Once we were at the hospital, we knew that if it was a boy, we were going to put 'Bear' on the nursery name card. Ben would be thrilled! That is exactly what we did and you should have heard the comments in the nursery!


"Did someone REALLY name their baby Bear?" (a nurse)
"I wonder if they named him after, Bear Grylls, the guy on Man vs. Wild." (a dad)
"That is so cool, I wish you would have let us name our kid something cool like Bear" (a young dad)
The nickname Bear stuck. That is the ONLY name Ben calls Hayden (unless he's angry at him, of course).

All considered, it's a pretty good nickname...although sometimes Hayden is more like a monkey than a bear, but that's a horse of a different color worthy of it's own post!

End of an Era

I finally decided it is time to move Hayden out of the crib. He has stayed in it the longest simply because there is no baby coming behind him to boot him out of his spot. BUT since he was using it for go-go-gadget-legs to manage feats like this...it was time!You might assume that I would be the saddest person in the house about this "end of an era" occasion. I WAS NOT! I'm not saying I wasn't sad, I'm simply saying Hayden was sadder. Actually he was absolutely devastated.

He sat and stroked the crib, weeping, saying "bye-bye bed". I would have filmed that but I was too busy disassembling (I had to get the crib to the basement before we had a full blown meltdown). Now, I'm unsure if he was sad to see the crib go or if he was thinking he wouldn't have a bed anymore. But after we got the new bed moved in he finally was smiling again!


Now if I can just get him to stay in it & go to sleep...it's not looking promising!
How typical is this? New bed & Rob finds him asleep on Rachel's Cinderalla rug on the floor! Oh well, I tried!