Oooops...

When choosing a name for a new child there are various things that you are advised to take into consideration:

trendy names that date.
the combination of initials.
names that when combined with the surname, sound bad.
names that are too difficult to spell or say.
And so on.

Nowhere did either I or Ken read "Names that when combined spell something else."

Isla M Thompson. People liked it. We liked it. The intials look fine and don't stand for anything that we know of and it sounded good.

Because of the way Isla is spoken, no-one picked up the combination of Isla and M.

Not until we had a letter from the Child Trust Fund addressed to Islam Thompson.

Ooops.

Anyone any ideas? We already have her passport. It may not be a problem but who knows what the world will be like in 20 years' time. Would she get a visa to Israel if we wanted to visit my friend who lives there? Would it lead to misunderstandings about her beliefs? We don't know but I am not sure that it is worth taking the risk.

I think the easiest way is to insert a name between the Isla and the M. Changing names becomes more complicated (and expensive!) and it is also easier to do it before her name becomes "attached" to too many things. We would have to choose a hard consonant to ensure that the words are really broken up.

We had thought of adding "Patricia" after Ken's mum but then she becomes
Isla PMT. Not good.

Equally we can't have Grace, another name we liked, as a friend pointed out that she then becomes "I slag." Also not good.

Suggestions? At the moment we are probably going with Kathryn. We know that there is a children's character called Katie Morag but I don't think this would be a problem and Ken is running out of patience having to think about names again!

P.S For bureaucratic reasons we have to do this before Tuesday as after then the cost doubles!

Mothers' Day

Happy belated English Mothers' Day. I know in Germany it comes on a different day and I have no idea whether they even have a Mothers' Day in America. Here, we had it on Sunday. Ken and Angus bought me a plant, but as yet I am still to ever have a Ken-initiated Mothers' Day card either from him or Angus, but a plant is a step in the right direction for which I am grateful. I did, in all fairness, also have breakfast in bed, but I suspect that this was more to do with helping me multi-task as I was feeding Isla at the same time and Ken was concerned that we would be horribly late for church.

That afternoon we went for a photoshoot at a local photographers. I have enclosed a link as this really is going to be the easiest way for any of you to see pictures of Isla. I know they say that the second child always has fewer pictures taken and it is so true. I have come to the conclusion that it is to do with the need of the older child to be looked after and you just don't have enough hands or energy or undivided attention to wonder over all the achievement of your new bundle. Be warned, with a little support, Isla was sitting for her alone pictures and she is only four months old... She was also tired and so didn't smile as much as usual. Actually, she didn't smile at all!

Any ideas for what combination of pictures we should order?

Here’s how to view your images from the Mother's Day Weekend Photoshoot:

• Go to www.teneightstudios.co.uk
• Click on ‘Portrait Photography’
• Click on ‘Client Area and select ‘Portraits’.
• Your password is: thompson

Life in (random) short phrases.

Angus is mostly asleep.
Isla is asleep.
Angus is now reading (short words but hey, he is only three)
Isla sleeps through the night.
Angus still adores Isla and loves giving her a bottle and playing with her.
Isla is trying really hard to sit up and already stands a little.

I have lots of blogs in my head that I haven't written:
How great it is having a helpful Mum living around the corner.
How great it is having helpful inlaws who come to stay.
How great it was visiting my brother and his partner (I despise that expression!) in Belgium.
How great it is being able to scrap life and reflect on all the blessings that we have.
(That's not a blog, but it is true!)

The snow has been awesome this year and I haven't been able to go out to play in it due to small babies and breastfeeding. This makes me sad.

I love being able to breastfeed.

Too often my day seems to involve too much cleaning up pooh.

Why are my chronological age, physical age and emotional age incompatible?

Blue is really annoying right now and seems to revel in lying, standing or sitting in passageways and doorways that I want go through.

Spring is coming and I am really hoping and praying that I am going to be able to go climbing this year.

I have just been appointed Scout Skills Instructor for this area for Climbing and Mountaineering.

I am starting to enjoy some pink, flowery stuff - is this the start of a slippery slope or am I becoming a victim of marketing?

It is very different having two children from one.

The Consequences of Pink

I have never been much of a "girly". Okay, so I do like a night out in a posh frock occasionally, but on a daily basis I tend toward pragmatic, not fashion or even attractive. It's true that I would like to feel more comfortable in feminine attire, but I don't and it's not exactly suitable for walking the dog anyway. Make-up only comes out on rare occasions. Boy babies somehow seemed more likely to fit in with this and the girly part of toy shops would leave me feeling either disinterested, appalled or with a feeling of dread.

Along came Isla.

Then came the bouquets of pink flowers.
And the pink cards.

And the pink clothes.

Oh dear...

I thought we were meant to moving away from gender stereotyping. It appears not when you are under five. Not when you can be marketted to!

It has occured to me over the past weeks that there are various consequences of having a "pink" baby. Some I may bring myself to comes to terms with; some I can imagine becoming potential sources of tension and some will be non-negotiable, at least for now.

Hair slides

Bows and other accessories.

Piercings

French plaits and other time-consuming hair styles

Make-up

High heeled shoes

Boyfriends

Nail polish

Crop tops

Dollies

"I'm not going climbing - I could break a finger nail...!"

Fairies and Princesses and other areas of Disney marketting

Boy bands

"Tweenager" marketting

The whole "Boys are little terrors and girls are little angels" thing.

And so on.

This got me looking around and I found a website called Pink Stinks. Well said.

A Quiet Evening in...

Angus is asleep, Isla is asleep, and Ken is away. I finally have a quiet evening in all to myself and a chance to unwind and catch up. I may even get around to loading some photos if the phone doesn't ring again!

Isla is doing well. She had her 6 week check up last week, even though she was actually ten weeks old! There was a lag after Christmas. Isla weighed in at 10lbs 5oz and is already able to stand with a bit of help with balance. This is so different from Angus! He didn't stand until about four or five months old although he also had good head control, and as many of us know, he was laid back to the point of laziness. Isla is far more assertive and quite determined to find a way to communicate to you exactly what she wants. A tongue being poked out means she is hungry; a wide open mouth and she wants her Schnuller (pacy [how do you spell that?]/dummy). Get those around the wrong way and she is not a happy bunny. She doesn't like being left out of things and will cry and get very cross if left in her seat. She would much rather be held and shown what's going on, or just cuddled! She mostly likes her changing mat and smiles at you, but only rarely tolerates a bath. Her play mat (Angus's favourite when her age) is a no go area but today sat in his doughnut play ring thing and really enjoyed it. Vertical seems preferable to horizontal and she regularly wants to practice standing and will complain until you help her up.

I see trouble ahead..... Two headstrong ladies in the same family ( maybe I should make that three, or is it four, or even five....?!) could lead to fireworks. We should all start praying for Ken now I think...

Angus is still smitten with her and told me today that he loves her. Actually, he loves a lot of people right now and is being very affectionate. He is still proud of his sister and regularly tells me things that he is going to teach her. Today he was going to teach her how to use my i-touch but he is also going to show her how to chop wood for the fire with the axe, how to light the fire, use a Bow saw, use the hand drill, run, tell her about Mallard his current obsession (a steam train - Google it), and do a pooh in the toilet. There is a certain amount of irony in that last one as he hasn't cracked that area yet and is going to see a hospital specialist in a few days. He is thoroughly enjoying being a big brother and wants to share his toys with her and asks me when she is going to grow big enough to play with. Fortunately scrapbooking has an advantage here as he can see when he did different things by looking in his book and this gives him a bit of insight into time scale.

I have just tried to add photos and it won't let me. Guess that lets me off the hook until next time. I will spend the rest of the evening finishing Thank You letters and editing photos for next time.