Great-Grandma, Great-Aunt, Great Visit

I'm late again in posting some pictures, but my grandmother and Aunt Peggy made it out to Boston from Ohio to visit William a few weeks ago, and I wanted to post the photos of our good time. My grandmother was kind enough to give Will the "Freeman stamp of approval"; she says that her mother-in-law (my great-grandmother) used to say she had to check out babies and make sure they were up to Freeman standards. And thankfully, Will seems to have checked off all the boxes. Phew!

Party Like It's 2007

This past weekend, we went to our first party...and left Will with my parents! The feeling of liberation lasted for about half an hour before we found ourselves sitting in a corner, just me and Dave, talking about Will's different cries. We also did some impressions of those cries...and corrected each other on the exact tone of each one...and we were not bored. Then Dave said, "I really hope no one's listening to us right now," and we got our act together and made the most of our freedom for another few hours.

We had a fabulous time at Kim and AlRo's holiday bash. That's Kim with me in the above picture. The last time we posed together with me in that dress, Kim was wearing a black cowboy hat and a faux engagement ring the size of my head. (It was at my bachelorette party.) I have no idea why we forgot to take some pics of me and AlRo, too. Maybe because I spent the whole night reminiscing with her instead? (We were laughing about our summer-of-2000 cross-country road trip, and typing that just made me realize that I have now known my college friends for over ten years! That's unbelievable.)

The next one is a shot of me and Lauren, who was very proud of me for getting all gussied up and drinking champagne, even if it meant leaving her godson behind for a bit.

And now we go back in time to Friday, when Auntie Mel came over to meet Will. After she cooed over him for a while, I believe her exact words were: "Can I not go to work and just come over every day and watch One Tree Hill with you and the baby?" (Of course, if it were up to me, uh...YES, PLEASE!)

Baby Names

My sister-in-law Jean and I recently had a long conversation about naming babies. She is due with a boy in March (boy cousins five months apart = great news for Will!) and I was grilling her a little about her naming process. While she and John are not revealing the name ahead of time, we talked about how they had decided on "Megan" for my three-year-old niece: "It wasn't my top choice, and it wasn't John's top choice...it was just the only one we could agree on."

Dave and I had chosen a boy's name prior to the Big Reveal Ultrasound, but not a girl's name. In fact, when we left that ultrasound appointment in a stupor, Dave commented that now we wouldn't have to think about names again for a couple of years.

Dave, is it? Hi, I'm Joanna. Nice to finally meet you! Baby names? Sure, I've been thinking about them since I was five years old, although at that point I was trying to name my imaginary future baby sister. What did I do when I realized I wasn't getting a sister? Thanks for asking! I actually proceeded to name the five panels of my bedroom bow window. I gave them first and middle names. And I wrote their names on the windowsills. In neon puffy paint.* What do you mean, that's crazy? Wait, where are you going? YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME NOW, WE TOOK VOWS, THINK OF THE BAAAAABY!

But I digress. Basically, Jean and I concluded that 1) naming babies is hard, and 2) naming babies whose last name is "Noon" can be especially hard. "Noon" is a noun, and therefore the following adjective/descriptive-word names are out of the running before the game's even begun: Summer, Autumn, April, May, June, Scarlett, Coral, Ruby, Dawn, Crystal, Amber, India, Chyna...not to mention anything that rhymes with "Noon" and all the tricky monosyllabic names like Brooke, which I love but Dave doesn't like when it's paired with Noon. He tells me it sounds too choppy. Even the name Taylor when paired with Noon...well, it rhymes with the name of the animated Japanese character Sailor Moon.

My last name is hilarious!

All this, and I'm not going to tell you what our favorite names are because there are still more babies to be had and therefore secrets to be kept! Suffice it to say, girls' names are tough, and boys' names are not that much easier. Still, I'm sure that we will all love the newest Noon boy's name, whatever it may be. Of course, we'll love the boy himself even more.


*This story is entirely true. Eventually I had to help my mom chisel the dried puffy paint off of the windowsills; I wish I had written down those names before they were lost forever.

Fun with Cousins

These pictures are a month old (hence the postpartum chub and grease--please ignore!) and we just got them online:

Our Family Photographer

Our wedding photographer, Brittany Blando, is one of my favorite people EVER. Let me tell you why:

1) When we first met, I told her I wanted Jessica Simpson's wedding day style and she told me, "But you're so much prettier than Jessica Simpson!" (I don't really need to list the next five reasons, do I?)

2) We had so much fun talking about my wedding, taking engagement photos, and getting to know each other in 2007.

3) She went out of her way to be there for much longer than scheduled on my wedding day, endeared herself to all our family and friends, and took spectacular photos.

4) She created our hilarious Us Weekly signature board and our gorgeous wedding album.

5) She was excited to come over and take pictures of me at the end of my pregnancy with Will, and we chatted for hours during the photo shoot.

6) She just sent me this picture from that shoot, and I can't stop staring at the belly and then the baby in my lap and thinking "This used to be that?" Amazing.

Will and the Tale of the Two-Month Checkup

Will was so excited to go to his pediatrician's office today for his two-month checkup:

This is a cell phone picture...could you tell?!

Little did he know he would be getting his vaccination shots--only two of them, though, and he cried for just a minute before calming down and napping a bit on the car ride home.

What else did we find out about our little man? Well, he is 13 lbs, 4 oz, and 23 1/4 inches long, which puts him squarely in the 75th percentile for both height and weight. My aching shoulders could have told you that without even putting him on the scale!

Will's cold has finally cleared up, his 6-hour stretch at night is apparently a common plateau for young babies, and there's absolutely no reflux to speak of. Yay!

Dave stayed home today to hold William's (or my) hand during the shots and to tackle some household chores with me, so I'm off to take advantage of having an extra set of hands around here.

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AUNT JEAN (one day late)! Will can't wait to see you and give you belated birthday kisses over Christmas. :-)

Date Nights

Back when Dave and I were only talking about having babies (for, like, 3.2 seconds before we then had one, I know--patience has never been my strong suit), we agreed that we would absolutely make sure to have a date night every week because it was important to keep our relationship strong, blah blah blah.

OK, so it is important to keep our relationship strong, but date nights require a few things that can't always be finagled, for instance:

• a baby who is not sick and thus destined to get sicker or give someone else his cold
• a mom who is equally not sick
• a dad who doesn't get stuck in meetings and then holiday traffic every night of the week
• free baby-sitting for the strapped-for-cash among us
• the will to do something "for fun" when the baby's not with us as opposed to the urge to get our tasks on the to-do list done fast, hurry, faster, we've only got an hour left, now the timer's down to 0:59:55, will you please fix the stupid changing table already?

...and so on. But the stars have been aligned the last few nights, and we have managed a date night to see Four Christmases while my parents baby-sat, a night out with Lauren for me, a brothers-in-law date to see the new Bond movie for Dave and Ben, and tonight Dave is out with Christian to cheer on the Celts. Whew! I don't know how long we can keep it up, but it's fun to have a bit of a social life again for as long as it lasts.

Happy December, everyone.