Lucy is due to arrive at the end of September, although Rommie keeps telling everyone that she could be here any day now. Jack and Cleo came early so I guess she figures Lucy might, too. Michael is absolutely freaking out which, in my opinion, is hilarious to watch. He's so not ready for this kid and it shows.
You guys probably think I'm a terrible brother for laughing at him, and I'll admit that it is kind of uncharitable of me to find amusement in his distress, but it's not as if he didn't have time to prepare himself. I'd have more sympathy for him if he'd done everything he could to get ready, but he's been pretty much disinterested in Lucy until now. On top of all that, it's not like he wouldn't laugh at me if our roles were reversed. Of course, the difference between Michael and me is that I'm paying attention to what's happening with my wife and child. I may be scared, but I'm not going to lose my mind and become utterly useless because I have no clue what's going on.
Anyway, now that Michael and Rommie are officially done picking names, the household has turned its collective attention to Sini and me. We decided to tell everyone our news the day before we left for our trip to the mainland. Our announcement was met with congratulations and plenty of enthusiasm from our friends. Pax is beside himself with excitement, needless to say, and he's been going around informing everybody about how happy he is that his wish for a baby brother or sister is coming true.
The only people we haven't told yet are my parents. I doubt it'll come as much of a surprise to Dad, but I really have no idea how Mum is going to take it and, to be honest, I'm not particularly anxious to find out. Her reaction when we shared that we were expecting Skyla wasn't exactly warm and joyful. In fact, that encounter left Sini in tears and me in a mood so vile that I vowed never to speak to my mother again. I forgave her eventually, like I always do, and obviously we're still on speaking terms. She is my mother, after all.
But, enough about my parents. I was talking about names. We've insisted that it's too early to start thinking about names yet, but that hasn't stopped anyone form offering up their ideas. Since we can't discourage our friends from contributing baby names, we've started a new list. My favourites so far are Scarlett - one of Beau's suggestions - and Nathaniel. Unfortunately, Sini is opposed to the idea of calling our baby Scarlett for the purely practical reason that he or she might end up being blue. Personally, I kind of like the irony of a blue person named Scarlett, but Sini doesn't see the humour in it at all.
Since we're probably not going to be writing out a birth announcement for Scarlett, we're open to other suggestions. If any of you guys out there want to share some of your ideas, we'll consider those as well. No food names, though, please. I think we've had enough of those, and I'm pretty sure you can guess where they came from.
Yeah, if you guessed Pax, you guessed correctly. From the guy who brought us Banana and Cash Flow, we now have Jellybean, Noodle, Rainbow and Denim. I quite like Denim, but we've pretty much consigned the others to the reject pile. I mean, seriously, Rainbow Brightman? There's no way that's ever going to happen.
As it turns out, the penchant for coming up with off-the-wall names isn't limited to Pax. I hadn't realized before now that Sini also has a taste for the bizarre. This never really came up when Skyla was on the way. As I might've mentioned before, Skyla was totally unplanned. We were so frightened and so overwhelmed by everything we had to deal with that we didn't actually discuss what to name her until the day after she was born. It's different this time. Even though this baby was unplanned too, we know what we're in for. We're more experienced now, and the fact that Sini is feeling reasonably well this time makes the situation far less stressful for both of us. We're in a better frame of mind to relax and enjoy all the things we didn't even think about when we were expecting Skyla.
Yesterday afternoon, I was helping Sini fold our laundry and we were chatting about, of all things, baby showers. Sini wants to have one. One of our neighbours down the street is also expecting, and she invited Sini, Rommie, Cassie and Sapphire to her shower. She invited Hunter as well, but Hunter doesn't do cute afternoon tea parties. This was a 'Jack and Jill' baby shower, which meant Michael and I got invited too. We went, but I'm not sure what the point was. All the women and girls played the party games and exclaimed over the cute baby gifts, while all of us guys basically hung out in the kitchen eating up all the snacks and talking about music, video games and who we think has the best chance of winning the Stanley Cup next year. Just for the record, the Boston Bruins get my vote.
Anyway, at this baby shower, the ladies played a game called 'What's My Name?' The way it works is that everyone writes two names - one for a boy and one for a girl - on a piece of paper. All the papers go into a basket and get shuffled around. Then, each person pulls out one paper and reads the names on it, and everyone else has to guess who contributed them. Sini was disappointed that everyone guessed her names right away, but it seems that they were so unusual, it wasn't difficult to know where they'd originated.
"I do not want to play that game at our baby shower," Sini said.
"Our baby shower?"
"It will be for women and men, just like our friend Amelia's baby shower. You do not like that idea?"
"It's fine with me," I said, "As long as you don't mind all the guys being in a separate room like we were at Ben and Amelia's house."
"I am sure I will get over the disappointment," she said.
"So, if you're not going to play that game, what games are you going to play?"
"I do not know yet, but Rommie will help me think of some. I do not expect it will be any use to ask you?"
"No," I said. "It won't."
"It is okay. It does not matter right now. We have time to plan this, and maybe you will think of something later."
"You never know. Maybe I'll even change my mind and play the games with you."
Sini made a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a snort. "And maybe it will snow in July next year."
"Is that sarcasm, Mrs. Brightman?"
"I am learning from the master," she said mildly.
I laughed out loud at that. Sini isn't the only one who's referred to me as the master of sarcasm, but it never feels like a compliment when it comes from other people. Coming from my wife, however, it felt like honest praise. I realize my feelings were probably a product of infatuation, but I don't care.
Sini must've sensed my emotional reaction, because our laundry was momentarily forgotten as she came over and slipped her arms around me. A moment later, her fingers were tangled in my hair and she was kissing me with what I can only describe as zeal.
"Wow," I said, once I'd caught my breath. "What was that for?"
"I like how that made you feel," she said. "I should insult you more often."
"You should kiss me like that more often."
"Maybe I will. I like how that made you feel, too."
"Sounds like a win-win scenario to me," I said.
She laughed and gave me a peck on the chin. "We will explore the possibilities later. Now, we need to finish our chores."
"Do we have to?"
She didn't answer. She simply let go of me and went back to folding clothes. I guessed she was feeling pretty happy, because she started singing to herself. I recognized the melody as a lullaby she often sings to Skyla and, occasionally, to me. I don't understand the words, but I like the tune. Some day, I'm going to ask her to translate it for me.
I didn't interrupt her from her singing. She has an amazing voice and I love listening to her. She finished her lullaby and began to hum something else, but halfway through, she stopped.
"What is it?" I said.
"Nothing. I am thinking."
"Are you okay?"
"Yes. I am fine."
"What were you thinking about?"
"The baby," she said.
"Oh? What about him?"
"Names," she said. "I was thinking about the game, and then I started thinking about names."
"Everyone's thinking about names," I said.
"Yes. I know we said it is too soon to think about that, but it is hard not to. There was Amelia's game, and now all our friends want to give us suggestions, too." she said. "Do you think Michael and Rommie would mind if we added some names to our list that were on their list?"
"Probably not," I said. "Especially now that they've picked one. What names did you have in mind?"
"Banana," she said.
For a second, I thought I'd misheard her, and I said, "Excuse me?"
"Banana."
"Please tell me you're joking," I said. "Anyway, that wasn't even on the real list, and...you are joking, right?"
"No, I am not. I thought it was silly at first, but now I like it. What is the phrase? It has grown on me. I like how it sounds."
Sini, we are not naming our child Banana."
"Why?" she said. "I think it is pretty. It is very musical."
"No," I said. "Just...no."
"It sounds like other Earth names. Like Hannah and Diana."
"Yeah, but when I meet somebody named Diana, I don't immediately think of something I slice and serve with my breakfast cereal. We can't name our kid Banana. It'd just be too weird."
"But you do not think Denim is a strange name? You would name our child after clothes but not food?"
"Touché," I said.
Sini snorted, her all-purpose sound of dismissal. "You know, if we cannot agree on an Earth name, there is an elegant solution."
"Why do I always worry when you say that?"
"We can give our child an Erisan name. That way, no one on Earth would know if we decided to name our child after food or clothes."
"Do Erisans do that? Name their kids after inanimate objects?"
"My name means the sky," she said. "Pax's mother is called Suvi, and her name means sunshine."
"Okay, so the answer is yes."
"Yes."
"Any suggestions, then?"
"When my sister and I were little girls, we used to pretend we were grown up with our own families," she said. "We made a very detailed world for ourselves in our imaginations. In my imaginary world, I was not in a trio like our parents. I had only one partner, and we had a beautiful daughter together. Her name was Kiva."
"Kiva. That's pretty," I said.
"Yes, and that is what it means," Sini told me. "Beautiful. I would rock my doll sometimes and pretend she was my Kiva. I liked to call her Ki, for a...pet name. Is that the proper Earth word?"
"A pet name or a nickname."
"Yes, a nickname. Ki means pretty or...lovely? Not beautiful, but still something that makes you want to smile when you see it."
"Cute?" I guessed.
"Yes."
"So, you called your doll Ki, like Pax's invisible friend?"
Sini laughed. "I had not thought of that," she said. "I think Pax would be very happy if we named our baby Kiva."
"What if it's a boy, though? I assume Kiva is a girl's name."
"Yes. We will have to think some more about names for a boy," she said, and then after a pause, she added. "Although I still think you are being unreasonable not to consider Banana."
"If we keep Banana on the list, we have to keep Denim too," I said. "Food and clothes, to be fair."
"Very well. To be fair," she said. "But, if we ask, I think everyone will agree that Banana Brightman sounds more pretty than Denim Brightman."
"Let's not ask," I said.
That earned me a gentle but well-aimed swat with whatever piece of laundry my darling wife was folding at the time. We opted to change the subject after that, since the name debate wasn't likely to be resolved in the living room over a basket of freshly laundered pants and t-shirts.
When I told Sapphire about our naming woes, she seemed to think the whole thing was totally funny. She said that we're probably the only parents in the world who could generate so much uproar over whether or not to name our baby after a piece of fruit. I said that if I'd fathered a child with a human woman, we wouldn't even be having a discussion about calling him Banana, because no Earth person I know would want their kid to go through life with a handle like that. Of course, I don't want to be with a human woman, or any other woman for that matter. Sini is the only woman for me. It's just that our cultural differences can create a lot of weirdness sometimes.
I do feel somewhat gratified after my chat with Sapphire, though. She likes Denim as a name for a boy, although she did suggest that we should consider some more traditional names. She showed me this interesting web site, so now we don't have to rely solely on our friends and our own imaginations to come up with possible choices.
Oh, and before I forget, Sapphire thought you guys might find this entertaining. I wasn't all that amused to pose for it, but given the subject of this post, I guess I can see how it's appropriate. Maybe some of you need to laugh today.
I doubt this is the last you'll hear of this topic. I'm hoping Sini and I can come up with something that both of us like, especially if we really are having twins as Sini seems to be hinting. Banana Brightman is strange enough. I don't want to think about what Sini might want to name his brother.
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