Goose is dancing (except when she isn't)

Goose has been in a dance class with her friends A, E, J, and J for the past couple months. They dance every Friday morning with Miss Annie (whose kids are also in our babysitting co-op...which also features dance class friends A, E, and the first J. Confused yet?). Annie taught the group a dance to the '50s hit "Lollipop" for our ward's recent talent show. We were excited to see Goose on-stage!

Here's one video of practice that Becky shot. Blogger won't let me to upload longer practice videos, so it's just a quick snippet. She's on the far right in the frame:

Fun and funny to watch, right? She did so well, and looked like she was enjoying her time on stage. She has comfort issues around lots of people, so we wondered how she would fare once it was showtime. The answer? (Blogger won't allow the 2-minute-long actual performance video):

Goose marched on-stage with her friends, the music started, and she froze. Her friends began dancing. Goose stood there. In a cute moment or four, she half-heartedly kicked a leg in front of her, lifted her arms, and made an attempt at jumping backward--all at the right times in the routine.

30 seconds in, she looked off-stage to Annie. People cheered for her. My dad's heart went out to her. 45 seconds in, Goose turned left and trotted off-stage to Miss Annie's side. From our seats, we could see Goose fighting back tears. As she reached the curtain, Goose lifted her hands to her face to hide her crying. The dad in me wanted to leave my seat and give her a big hug, but a bigger part of me thought that might make Goose even more sad (she has a tendency to theatrically dissolve even more when I'm around). Annie brought Goose back on-stage for a bow with her friends once the song and routine were over. 

Even then, Goose was frozen. No bow. No wave. It was a cute event to watch, and we're still proud of her for getting out there. She has a lot of fun dancing under more comfortable situations, so I hope this one time didn't scar her. Maybe next year?

Ice dancing

Last month (where does the time go?) we ventured out on a snowy Saturday morning. Goose saw a frozen-over patch on the Charles, and fell in love. This girl spent almost a half-hour dancing and prancing around. I think ice skates are in her future--even after what looks like a painful spill 5-6 seconds in (that spill would have rendered me incapacitated for days [as well as potentially forever-after...let's just say, um...unable to add to our brood]).

And her little sister got in on the act indoors later that day. She wasn't a fan of being on ice, but she loved shaking it around the warm confines of her house:

Good Hands

As the picture below demonstrates, we will be in good hands in about three months. We've got two ready-and-willing helpers. And while their exact roles in reality will be different from the roles they're displaying here (we really don't want a 2-and-a-half year-old helping out at the stirrups!), Goose and Mouse have been talking about singing to "Baby Brother," giving him a bath, getting his diapers, feeding him, and reading to him.

Now, if only one of our daughters could take the 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. nightly shift!

Becky's now in the third tri-mester and feeling pretty good, sleeping well (no body pillow deployed [yet]), and--together with yours truly--is still on the lookout for a name for this little dude. Your comments and suggestions were helpful, so thank you! For some reason, we have had a much harder time selecting one boy's name than we ever had selecting both girls' names. He will remain nicknamed Moose on this blog, and will debut in about three months from today.

And even then, we'll still have a couple days to finally get that child named before we leave the hospital!    

"Behold your little ones"

Last Saturday afternoon, I sat on our couch reading books to our little girls. Goose's Primary leader had asked the week before that kids read the scriptures with their parents, and of course we left it to close to the last possible moment. Goose and I read the sweet account in the Book of Mormon of when Jesus ministers to each child among what we envision to be hundreds, and then says to their parents and elders, "Behold your little ones."

I asked Goose what she thought that meant. Here are her answers:

"Put your kids to bed."

"Big sisters go first, then their little ones join them."

There might have been a few other sage answers in this moment of what I thought would be a profound and reverent experience, but I was chuckling too hard to make a mental note. On a positive note, she has been doing great each week in Primary, and last Sunday she burst out of her Primary room after 2 hours, excitedly looked for us, and shouted, "Mommy, I didn't cry at all in Primary today!"

Call for names

Boy names, that is. Here at Chez TimBeck4, we have spent the better part of a month trying to find one single, blessed boy name that Becks and I both like. There are some rules that we've self-imposed, which have hampered our search so far:

1. The name must not be terribly common. With a common last name like ours, we hope to find a name that is less common, less usual. This has ruled out a slew of otherwise good names, like Jonathan or James or Michael.

2. The flip side of #1 is that the name also can't be too out there. No Mortimer. No Jebediah. No Rutherford.

3. No Joshua, no Jacob...nothing that ranks anywhere in the top 25, and certainly nothing in top 5.

Other criteria:

4. Becky hopes to find a name with multiple syllables, like Bradley, and that can be shortened, like Benjamin.
But we have crossed off Benjamin, Robert, and a host of others that fall into this trap.

5. Trying really hard to find a name that doesn't violate any of the first 4 criterion, and doesn't automatically make us (OK, Timo) instantly think of how our son will be ridiculed by chumps in the future for his given name. For example, this rules out Mitchell, 'cus when you shorten that name and think of the middle/junior high school idiots who will combine it with another word, you get...Or another name, which I instantly loved but just as quickly realized would likewise subject our son to harassment from about age 8 through 20. I'll hold off on revealing it, in case we have a change of heart.

***
We have poured through a book of 10,000 baby names. Four times. Nothing jumps out at us, or passes muster with our criteria. I've even looked through the starting lineups for every Red Sox team since 2003 in a fruitless search for just the right name. In another baseball tale, Becky ruled out "Dwight," which I wanted, as that was the first name of my favorite player growing up...Dwight Evans of the Red Sox. Becky instead instantly pictured that odd doofus Dwight Schrute from "The Office."

This is where you kind readers come in.

If you think this criteria is ludicrous, please tell me. Please state your reason why we should try hard to look past any of these 5 rules in our to-date unsuccessful name search. We are desperate, and we will graciously field any suggestion and give it careful consideration.

Thank you. Gracias. Merci. Grazie. Dzienkuje. Paldies...Hey, maybe we should look internationally!