Fenton

 

^Ella is all about accessories, she regularly pulls a shirt over her head and just leaves it around her neck like a scarf, it's a pretty fabulous look.

Also, she is crazy about books, although she still doesn't like them read to her.

^Sometimes there are meltdowns when I have to feed Baby Boy (but thankfully, these are getting much fewer and less dramatic).

And luckily her frustration with getting less and less of my attention is directed at me and not Fenton, she kind of is thinking about liking him, which I am so happy about!

His one downfall, in her mind, is that he's kind of boring and needs regular harsh jabs and pokes to the face so that he'll actually DO something, like make a face or cry.

 

 So far she pretty much refuses to hold Baby Boy, but she loves getting kisses from him and talking to him and she asks about him first thing each morning when she wakes up, I'm taking this as a positive sign.

 

It's kind of hilarious to look back at my blog posts from when I was first pregnant with Ella, because I refer to her as "he."

Adam and I were totally convinced that Ella was a boy before we found out the actual gender.

We had a name all picked out for our little boy and we couldn't decide on a girl's name, so obviously that meant that we were going to have a boy, a logical conclusion, clearly.

Plus, Adam says that my prayers are always answered and I had always thought that I wanted a boy first, although I don't think I would have asked for that in a prayer because that seems silly.

When we found out she was a girl we were in shock, we kept saying, "It's a girl?" for a whole week until it finally turned into, "It's a girl!!"

And now, of course, we are so happy that she is our first child because her happy spunkiness and love for action and adventure are sure to affect the way that the rest of her siblings look at life, and that makes me so happy.

So since we never used that first boy name for Ella, we immediately knew what to name this baby when we found out his gender.

There are absolutely no boy names that Adam and I agree on, except for one.

I worked at a daycare every summer while I was in college and there was this baby boy there with a very bald head and the cutest face and squishiest and biggest cheeks you've ever seen and his name was Fenton.

Since I worked at the daycare for several years I watched him grow up and even as a talking little boy he was the cutest, sweetest, kindest, and happiest kid.

So now, fast forward to when Adam and I are laying in bed one night and talking about baby names and I'm thinking about the names of all the kids at the daycare and throwing out the ones I like and I remember Fenton's name.

That was the first time I really considered the name Fenton for one of my own kids but when it came to mind, I really liked it.

So I threw out, "Fenton" and Adam immediately said, "no."

Not a shocker, he says that to every single boy name I like (and I say the same about his).

But a few days later the topic came up again (because, you know, it's pretty much the best to lie in bed and talk about what you think your future children will be like) and for some reason I threw out Fenton one more time and to my complete amazement Adam said that the name had kind of grown on him and he sort of liked the name Fenton.

You guys, that has NEVER happened.

He never changes his mind about names that I like.
EVER. 

So that became our one and only boys name that we both liked.

I've always said that I didn't want to name my kids after ancestors or family members, I just wanted to name them names that I liked, but my children and ancestors seem determined to find a way around my stubbornness.

With both Ella and Fenton, I liked those names and was planning on giving them those names and then after I decided I really liked the the name, I found out that there was an ancestor with that same name and it probably wasn't coincidence that I liked those names.

If you read the story about Ella's name, we had decided that we wanted to name her Ella but what really confirmed it was when we learned about Adam's great aunt Ella who never had any children and for some reason we felt so sure that she wanted us to name our daughter after her.

So despite my determination I ended up naming my child after a relative, but it's a name that I had first really liked.

And the same thing happened with Fenton, which I think is hilarious because really, how common is the name Fenton?

Not common at all.

So I was at Adam's grandma's house and I was flipping through some photo albums with pictures of Adam's mom and her siblings and then I flipped to a page that said "Mark Fenton." I was in shock.

I flipped a few more pages and there was the name "Peter Fenton."

Adam's great grandfather and great great grandfather and great great great grandfather all had the middle name Fenton.

I mean, really?

What are the chances that I would like a name as rare as Fenton AND that it would be a relative's name as well?

So that confirmed it, we knew that one day we needed to name our future son Fenton because for some reason it was meant to be.

I know the name Fenton isn't very common but I really love it and it seems perfect for this little person.

Some people have asked me what his nickname will be, I have no idea. 

Maybe he'll just be Fenton with no nicknames.
It's not a very long name.

And a little something that makes Adam so happy is that if you combine Ella and Fenton's names you get: EllaFent.

So together they are our Elephant (it makes calling them to dinner easier).