Baby names

I started this post more than a week ago. Honestly, I just have too much to say, and these posts get too long. I want to say everything that's on my mind, give an update on the children, etc., oh well.... the baby is crying ... hopefully I'll make it back.

I'm back.

Let me first say: THANK YOU for all the gifts we received over Christmas! We all feel truly blessed. Thomas and I have been enjoying all our gifts ... we've both been sitting around reading all our new books (and I love the way our new sheets feel each night I crawl into bed). The children received so many new toys and clothes that I can't imagine when they will need anything new. They are set for at least several months. I'm hoping Petra will be able to wear her 12-18 month old clothes until the summer.

In the last month, Petra has appeared to grow like a weed. I can't figure out if she has gotten taller, or just leaner. But her legs look longer. I guess she is losing her baby fat. She also has 6 teeth now. She is surprising us each day with so many things. She will repeat her name now ... although she can't say "p" so it doesn't sound anything like it. Last week I sang BINGO ... and she amazingly said "B-I-N-G-O" when we got to that part ... all on her own. I would say she said half the letters clearly, but she had the rhythm down perfect. Thomas turned around shocked when she did it. I swear she also spelled her name with me this morning ... but it seems too impossible to believe. But it was just as clear as BINGO, and she only did it once. She is also trying to say ABCD now. For Christmas she got a babydoll and bottles, last week she was carrying around the baby trying to feed it the bottle. It was so cute. Of course, she dropped the babydoll on her head several times and carried it around by its foot some. She is doing great with her little brother. No real problems. Today she had a fever. I'm hoping it passes soon and is not another ear infection.


We received a few names for the baby from some of our family. Here are some of the suggestions that were emailed: Mica Thomas, McKinley, Hamesh, Gabor, Manford, Dewey, Casper, Asaya ... yes, some of these are mighty strange. I think my sister, Lynn, realizes that we like unusual names and happily sent us a long list of very unusual names. I never realized how hard it is to come up with a name you like. I thought we were set on boy names. I was obviously wrong. There are so many names that I think are OK ... but then I think, is this a name that I want to be saying my entire life ... do I love it that much? And usually the answer has been "not really." And then we also have to think about initials, possible nicknames, teasing, and whether it goes well with Petra. For instance, I ruled out the name Elektra for our next girl because it too closely rhymes with Petra. Plus, we had a very good reason for choosing the name Petra ... and I want to have a good reason for choosing all of our children's names. I want to tell them one day, we chose your name because ... and not because we just liked the name.

So ... we have decided on Jasper Hadley Croom.

Why'd we choose Jasper? Well, actually mainly because we liked it and it suits him. But here are some other reasons. Jasper actually means "keeper or guardian of the treasure." And I'm sure you all know that Jasper is a stone, revered greatly in the biblical times. (By the way, Petra means rock) In fact, jasper appears many times in the Bible. For instance, Rev. 21:11 says " It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal." And just for a little trivia - one of the three wise men was named Gasper, a variant of Jasper. And then there is the character is in the Twilight series, but that wasn't a reason. (but I just thought I would throw that in there since Petra's name came from Ender's Game).

Hadley was an easy choice - this is Thomas great-grandfather's name - and it is a perfect fit. And just in case you are wondering, Hadley means "from the heath covered meadow."

So there you go, both of our children have names that are related to stones/rocks, have a biblical reference, and are characters from books that I have enjoyed. Don't expect us to keep up the trend ... I doubt we will keep coming up with stone related names.