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Disclaimer: Just in case you weren’t aware, this is my personal blog. It’s not being written with SEO and all that in mind, so I get to write my titles exactly as I like to, like I have done today. It’s not how I’d write them if they were for work stuff….I don’t want you to think I’m not title aware ;)

Here are two best friends. They are also known as a Daddy and soon to be 4 year old son. Or Lovely Bloke and W. But there’s a problem looming. All too soon, they are going to be separated for hours at a time, when W starts big school, in September. He goes to pre school nearly every day, but that’s not the same in our minds. It’s optional, not obligatory. Lovely Bloke and W get to do stuff together, like going to Waitrose on a Friday morning, doing the shopping and having a milk and cake together in the cafe. I hear that it’s all very civilised, until W decides he’s bored of it and says “right, lets go”…

And even before big school happens, E 0r BIG E, as I’m referring to him, will be home from school for the summer. This will be great in itself – lots of adventures and opportunities for playing for all three of them. But right now, he’s at school 9am – 3pm ish and it means that lovely as E finishing school will be, it’s also going to mean that Lovely Bloke and W will have even less time together, for their pootling around, doing jobs, getting into trouble and having fun when they think no one is looking.

So right now they are on countdown, and I don’t think either of them have realised it yet. I don’t like how sad they will be when they do realise. So for now, I’ll treasure these photos of them sticking “bugs” on each other’s noses, boobs, bums and arms. Which ones do you think W did?

When we were gearing up for E going to big school, it was exciting, an adventure. Now it’s time for W to make the transition, I just want to cry. I’m sad. It’s the end of an era. I know it’s a good thing – we are raising two bright, enquiring, relatively polite, funny, good to be with boys who are thriving at school and pre school. We love the smug parenting moments when we are told about something good, kind or smart that they have done. But the other bit of me, just wants to snuggle under the duvet with them. They are growing so fast. Sometimes, I just want time to stand still.

Image courtesy of http://humanfertility.net/picking-baby-names/

Am not sure why, but how you choose your baby’s name is on my mind this afternoon…

With our first baby, we didn’t know if it was a girl or a boy, so we had boy names and girl names on a shortlist. When a son arrived, we were so grateful that it had all worked out in the end (there’d been a rush towards the end of the process and an emergency c section…) that the name didn’t feel like such a big issue. Nonetheless, we had to pick between Elliott and Max. We went with the former as the relatives were bounding down the corridor desperate to meet him.

With our second child, we knew we were having a boy, but there was still the shortlisting to do. But the problem was that we didn’t have hours of sitting around debating names. And Lovely Bloke felt that we couldn’t use any of the names from our other shortlist because that would be wrong, it was not giving our second child his own name, but more one that was a left over from the first time around. So we were debating William or Oliver. And in the end, after he arrived, I wanted Oliver and Lovely Bloke wanted William, so that’s what he was called, as I’d had two blood transfusions (I’m not great at the whole giving birth thing) and felt too weak to argue that much…

The things that drove our choices were:

1. We wanted something that other people weren’t picking. [That worked for E but not for W, bless him]
2. We wanted a name that wasn’t a family name, we wanted our boys to be their own people, without the burden of someone else’s history. [That worked for E, but not W, bless him. Although I only found out after we'd told everyone his name, when my mother in law helpfully announced it....]
3. We wanted a family name for a middle name. [Thankfully, we managed that one on both occasions...]
4. We didn’t want something that would sound too kooky. [I think we just about managed that as well. Time will tell I suppose]

What confuses me, is how parents pick baby names that they say up front, are after a pop star, famous person, or someone in the public eye? Aren’t most people in the public eye there for a fleeting moment of time, so why pick that name? And usually, it’s not their really name, it’s something designed to get attention, a stage name, instead of their real name.

What also confuses me , is how parents to be choose a baby’s name before they arrive. Lots of people do it, but to me, it seemed alien because I wanted to see my babies to check if the name would “fit” them…

Different strokes for different folks I suppose. How did you choose your baby’s name?

Cambridge Mummy

Tag Archives: son

Cambridge Mummy on… best friends being parted by going to school

The Cambridge Mummy blog: Baby names…..