The name game

Now that we've found out our second child's gender, we have begun in earnest to search for his name. (Well, not every day in earnest. There are other things, like work, and dishes, and toddler snuggles, and prepping the nursery, which take plenty of time.) Like with our last little guy, this is not an easy process for us, although we did of course finally settle on a name we now love.

I have my favorites (Samuel and Luke) and so does my husband (Henry [Hank] and Walter). Unfortunately, they don't align. So we're attempting to find a name that we both truly like.

If you'd like to throw in your two cents, please vote at the poll I posted with some of the names we've discussed. We're open to more suggestions, too—maybe a name we haven't thought about yet will be just perfect for our new son. For the most part, we like classic-sounding names.

Someday, our name will come (just as long as it's before our second little prince comes!).

Life's a changin'

In the last several weeks, we've experienced two major changes in our little family. First, our baby boy became officially not a baby any more (sniff, sniff). He turned the big 2!

It's been great fun to see him develop physically, mentally and emotionally of late. He has learned how to save "Love you," and loves to give hugs and kisses. He'll come running at me and my husband full-speed, saying "[h]ug! [h]ug!" He's got his foibles for sure, but he's a sweet little boy. He says "Thank you" most of the time when he's given something, and he says "Hi" and offers a big grin to nearly anyone—especially to characters who look like they might be criminals in their free time. His vocabulary seems to expand daily; it's always fun to hear him say a new word he picked up on his own.

Celebrating with dirt cake. Shortly thereafter, he attempted to eat the candle.
That is, he took a huge bite of it before I had him spit it out.

Second, we moved. It was just a few blocks away, in the same town, but it was quite the experience! It was the first time we had moved as a family (when we married, I simply moved into my husband's home), and so we had plenty of stuff to sort through and toss. We ended up taking a very long time to move everything since we were under no pressure, and that made for some extra stress. But all in all, we're fairly settled now (except for a few last pesky boxes). And we are enjoying the perks of our new home.

The move came with a move to Jack's big-boy bed. He loved it—and we loved that he loved it.  Next up, potty training...

 Moving time! I told him we were moving his toys so he picked these up and headed out the door.

We are keeping busy celebrating others' life changes, too—graduations, a good friend's wedding, baby showers, birthdays. It's that season of the year when I'm reminded to be so thankful that life's a grand adventure!

And the name is...

We beat our self-set deadline of picking a name for our little boy by April 1, and finally decided this past weekend. We have tossed around so many names it's dizzying, but we've finally settled on a name we both like: Jack.

On his birth certificate, our little guy's official name will be John Stephen Phillips. My husband wants him to have a "proper" name on his birth certificate (as Jack is a nickname for John), and an option to go by John later on in life if he likes.

Jack/John means "God is gracious"—and He certainly is, in the gift of His Son, and the gift of our little boy. It's a beautiful reminder to us as parents, and we hope it will be to Jack, too, as he grows and learns about his Lord. Stephen (pronounced Stephan) is my husband's middle name and his dad's first name.

In just about six weeks, we'll have the honor of holding Jack. It's hard to wait!

And the votes are in...

Thanks to all 43 of you who participated in the baby name poll!

Caleb holds the number-one slot with 16 votes (or 37 percent). That's one of my favorite names, but it's not flying with my husband. (Also, I've sadly since discovered that it doesn't have the most flattering meaning: dog.) Other top names were:

• Hudson (10 votes)
• Matthew and Oliver (6 votes each)
• Luke (5 votes)
• Charles (4 votes)

Less popular were Isaac, Russell, and Thomas, with three votes each. Carl and Henry each got two (odd, since Carl Henry was a famous theologian), and Clark, James, and Walter just one. Poor Theodore and Ivan got left out in the cold with not a single vote, probably a nice, clear indicator that we should stay away from those.

My husband also ran a poll on his blog. Interestingly, James got the top vote, followed by Caleb and Luke. Oliver, Henry (Hank), Russell (Rush), Clark, Matthew, and Charles also got the thumbs up from a few people.

More recently, we've discussed Jonathan and Jack.

Regarding the later, I'd like to name him Jack, but my husband thinks we should put John on the birth certificate and call him Jack because it is odd to give a child a nickname as his full name. He has a great point, but I believe many people consider Jack a name in its own right (your opinions on this are welcome). And it seems slightly strange to name him one thing and have no intention whatsoever of calling him that (though he could chose John when he's older, of course).

Don't worry, baby, you'll have a name before you're born—I hope! :-)

One-word fun

Becky tagged me to share this info about myself. The idea is to respond with one word that comes to mind (or a few more, depending on the question). Here are my efforts at being concise. Check at the bottom to see if you've been tagged. :-)

1. Where is your cell phone? Purse
2. Your significant other? Adorable
3. Your hair? Shorter
4. Your mother? Generous
5. Your father? Warm
6. Your favorite thing(s)? Hugs, sunshine, little surprises, cozy blankets, days off
7. Your dream last night? Weird
8. Your favorite drink? Five Alive
9. Your dream/goal? Motherhood
10. The room you’re in? Office
11. Your fear? Heartbreak
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Content
13. Where were you last night? Taste of India
14. What are you not? Extroverted
15. Muffins/donuts? Muffins
16. One of your wish-list items? Seeing England
17. Where you grew up? Canada
18. The last thing you did? Work
19. What are you wearing? Maternity clothes
20. Your TV? NCIS
22. Your computer? Lifeline
23. Your life? Full
24. Your mood? Mellow
25. Missing someone? Family
26. Favorite pastime? Scrapbooking
27. Something you’re not wearing? Necklace
28. Favorite Store? Archiver's
29. Your summer? Unforgettable
30. Your favorite color? Blue
31. When is the last time you laughed? Today
32. Last time you cried? Wednesday
33. Four places you go over and over? Church, Chipotle, work, Subway
34. Four people who e-mail me? Bill, Dad, Gina, Natalee
35. Four of my favorite foods? Avocados, cheese, chocolate, eggs
36. Four places I would like to be right now? Vancouver, PEI, England, here
37. Four people I tag? Cherissa, Shawn, Tracy, Marianne

Book of love

For romantic occasions, I usually attempt to think of something creative to give my husband. There are two reasons for this: 1) I want it to be more meaningful than something I can pick up in five minutes at the mall, and 2) my husband is very non-materialistic (a wonderful quality) and doesn't always have a long list of gift ideas for me.

So, this year for our anniversary, I covered a little chipboard book that I found in one of my favorite stores, Archivers. Inside, I stuck down little pieces of paper, stickers, and other embellishments, as well as one of our wedding photos, all designed to tell Bill 100 things I love about him. (Thanks, Marianne, for sharing this idea at Pickled Pear Lane!)

It was quite a bit of work, but I'd wanted to try this type of thing of a while, so I'm glad I did it, and—most importantly—my husband is pleased with the result.

Still scrapbooking

Amidst celebrating the Fourth with a family BBQ and fireworks, joining in the joy of some friends' first anniversary party (and losing at a newlywed game my husband and I were solicited to participate in—quite fun, but slightly embarrassing), teaching kids the essence of Romans chapter 9, and sleeping in, I worked on my scrapbook.

I had looked forward to this weekend (I even took a half day off today, just for fun) because I've recently managed to sidestep my scrapbooking goals completely. This weekend, I glued, cut, and created my way through 14 pages.

Since my last update in the beginning of May, I've made 34 pages, landing me within two layouts of completing April 2007. This is somewhat short of my 20-page-or-three-months-of-photos-per-month goal (I should have 40 pages done or be working on May memories), but I'm still pleased that I've made some significant progress.

Here's a layout I made this weekend about the fun my husband and our little nephew have together:


P.S. I must confess that my very first card (see previous post) had a spelling error. I discovered quite accidentally that yippee is spelled with two p's, and not one. My husband, being the sweet guy that he is, was content with his card, foibles and all.

A particularly happy word

Now, if you're not a journalism major like me (or maybe an English major), you may assume I'm just a little bit odd, and that's fine. But every once in a while I run across an interesting word that fairly dances across the page (or screen, in this case).

Today I was reading a New York Times article that contained this delightful word: gamboled. It's a verb meaning "to leap about playfully; frolic" according to the American Heritage Dictionary. (And, if you care, it can also be a noun, gambol, meaning "a playful skipping or frolicking about.")

Anyhow, I was filled with little bits of delight. I can't wait to use it in a sentence.

How about now? Life is short. I feel like gamboling because of this happy discovery!