little sketches of us…

Merayla was so excited to start going to Kindergarten. She started on August 22nd and it has been a busy two weeks, but she is still loving it. Here she is on the first day of school.

We are “walkers” because the car line is crazy, and we live really close to the school. Daddy makes the trek with her every morning, and Mommy and Bird go every other afternoon. I handled the whole thing better than I thought, and it’s been fun to have some time with just Oliver. He plays well by himself but sometimes he stops to ask, “Where’s my brother?”

She is going to Veterans Park Elementary, and her teacher is Mrs. Rowe. The full-time aid is Mrs. Helm. Cristian snuck a few pictures of the class on the first day so you get to see it in action.

We took a little family vacation in August to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It was awesome! The water was so warm, and the weather was nice even when it rained. We had fun in the ocean, went to a cool water park, and went mini-golfing for Family Home Evening. In the evenings, we ate at fun restaurants and watched the Olympics. Cristian tried out boogie-boarding, and Merayla tried out everything she could think of. Bird was scared of the waves but loved the sand, and he keeps saying, “Let’s go back to the beach vacation.” I would love to!

		Myrtle Beach VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I guess I haven’t officially announced it, but we are excited for the newest addition to our family that will be coming on or around September 24th. Cristian decided he wanted to take a few maternity pictures to try out settings on the camera so here are the glam shots of me at about 6 months, as well as a cool pair of glasses that someone left along the bike trail. And a nose shot. Cristian just loves these for some reason…

Pregnancy Bridals VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

And, if you make it all the way through those, here are some names we are thinking about. Comment, vote, tell me which one of them you like the most!

• Emory Rose Icleanu

We’ve liked the name Emory since Cristian started applying to grad schools, and we both thought Emory University had a nice ring to it. In fact, I think that’s the major reason why we applied there. There is also a county in Utah called Emery and an exit somewhere on the way to Evanston, Wyoming that goes to Emory, but I can’t find that on the map. Rose is just a middle name that I think sounds nice with Emory.

• Nellie Lucia Icleanu

I wanted to name someone after my great-grandmother, who I grew up around and really admired. Her name was Nellie Barbara Hirschi Widmer. Though I’m not in love with Nellie as a name, it only seems to sound ok as a first name. It also has a similar meaning to Cristian’s #2 choice. Nellie is a derivation of Helen, which means the sun and the Romanian name Lucia means light.

• Emery Lucia Icleanu

Emery spelled the way most people here spell it for girls, and Lucia again for Cristian (in English it’s “l-oo-see-a” and “lu-ch-ee-a” in Romanian).

• Geneva Ecaterina Icleanu

I could name her after my home town instead of my great-grandmother? Both of us liked Genevieve, and Geneva is actually kind of a pretty combination of Jen and Eva, which I like even though I’ve never heard of it as a first name before. Ecaterina is Cristian’s father’s mother, who I met when we were in Romania. She was very sweet.

• Emory Katerina Icleanu

Cristian’s preferred spelling for Emory, and my Americanized version of his grandmother’s name.

• Emory Nelia Icleanu

Again, the original Emory and this new idea I have of keeping my great-grandmother’s name but passing it on sounding a little nicer and Romanian-er.

Merayla got her tonsils out in August. She’d gotten strep at least 4 times this year, and last time we were at the doctor he said, “Why haven’t you got those tonsils out yet?” And I thought, “Good question.” Her tonsils have always been enlarged, even at the well-child checks, but I was worried that she would need them for some immunity somewhere down the road.

But the pro case kept stacking up. I hated pumping her full of antibiotics every other month. I was sure she’d get strep even more often when she started Kindergarten and was around more kids every day, and my dad told me he was sick as a child all the time and finally wanted to eat after he got his tonsils out at a young age.

We scheduled the procedure. Even though I was freaked out by it being considered a major surgery and all of the complications that could occur, she did great. She came out of the anesthesia well, and Bird was very cute with trying to make her feel better. She had a barking cough at first, but the nurse assured me that was normal and it lasted mostly the first day. She had to stay at home and not run or play for about a week (and she was sad not to eat baby tomatoes out of the garden), but she healed very quickly, loved eating ice cream and popsicles, and didn’t need much of the pain medications they gave us. Here’s to hoping it was worthwhile, and we’ll be a strep-free household!

Tonsillectomy VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL