My Second Son is Born!

On 11/11/11, my wife gave birth to our third child, Lockelan Arthur. Mom and baby are doing well. He looks just like his older brother, William. We chose another Scottish name to match William, but we altered the spelling in recognition of our favorite LOST character. The middle name is not due to the man in Camelot, but instead references Arthur Dent from one of my wife’s favorite books (or series of books, I should say), The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Third

My wife and I are expecting our third child later this year. Third. That makes me think of Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, one of the few books I’ve read more than once.

We don’t know whether we’re having a boy or girl yet, and I would honestly be pleased either way. My main pre-birth thought around any child is what to name him or her. Actually, I take that back. I’m only concerned when it’s a him rather than a her.

My criteria for names (which may differ from my wife’s) is that my wife and I both like the name and that it isn’t common. Yes, my son’s name is William, which is common, but few people actually go by William (which is what we call him), so in that aspect, I consider it uncommon. An added bonus is if the name has familial significance or touches on pop culture interests of ours (for example, my daughter Elora’s name ties to the princess in the movie Willow).

Girl names are easy to match to the main criteria. There are a lot of names that sound great and are uncommon. In fact, I could probably invent my own word and end it with a suffix of -elle, -anna, or -een and come up with an original girl name. Either that, or I’d end up with the name of a new pharmaceutical drug.

With boy names, a lot of names that I like are common. If you have a common name, as I do, you either end up being referenced as First Name plus Last Name Initial (Matt W), or you take up a new name, perhaps a middle name or a nickname (I went by my last name throughout high school and college). So the cool name has a good chance of getting lost by the need to actually identify the boy uniquely, and there’s a fair (or perhaps unfair) chance that you won’t choose your own soubriquet.

My first thought was to try to repeat the process of how we chose Elora’s name. Unfortunately, referencing the movie Willow for boy names leads to horrific outcomes like Madmartigan or Rool. Referencing other fantasy material also does little good, I’ve found. In fact, I consider Tolkien’s works to be a foundation for high fantasy, yet the most normal name I recall from his works is Samwise. Samwise, really? Oh, there are some cool names in Tolkien’s fiction, but I would never punish a child for life by actually using them. Of course, if I’m pressed to come up with something, dragon names might command attention. Or ridicule.

At any rate, stay tuned much later in the year for the grand announcement when I introduce little Glaurung or Trimethylneen.

Sharing the Germs

It isn’t much fun to be sick at the same time as my wife, mostly because neither of us can wait on the other. Add a sick baby in the mix, and things become even more interesting.

A couple of weeks ago, I had one of those, “Oh, I guess I’m a parent,” moments when we took my daughter to the pediatric emergency room. She wasn’t quite to a fever, but she hadn’t kept much food down at all that day. It took us three hours to see a doctor because the plague seemed to have hit most of the community’s youth, although I was a little annoyed by the illness’s apparent symptoms of running around and shouting.

Once we saw a doctor at 1 AM, our daughter’s digestive tract flushed itself upon my wife with a gooey fanfare. Our daughter had a change of clothes on hand; my wife didn’t. After learning of this latest event, the doctor recommended we be admitted to the hospital for overnight observation.

I drove home to pack some things for us and started back to the hospital at 4:30. I hadn’t slept for a long time, and driving was quite perilous. At one point, I was certain there was a man running along the side of the highway at the same rate as my car; he turned out to be the antenna.

Our daughter’s temperature relented during the wee hours, and she was finally able to keep some food down. Apparently, she had cried so much from being sick that her stomach had filled with gas, and that was the reason for all the vomiting. Her temperature did fluctuate a little over the next week, and she’s still a bit congested to this day, but overall she’s doing much better.

My wife was sick at the same time as my daughter. I came on board with the illness a few days later (probably from a lack of sleep). Things could have been much worse, of course, and these events weren’t unmanageable. I simply had no idea how dynamic parenting is.