What is in a name?

Ayden

Ashton

When we got pregnant we never even looked at boy names because if we had a boy it would be Jeffrey Charles III. We found two girl names we liked, but decided if we went to the 20 week ultrasound and found out we were having a girl we would decide then. So, obviously, we didn't just find out we were having one boy, but two boys at the 20 week ultrasound! Now we were in a real pickle! Jeffrey III and Jeffrey VI?!? Uummm...NO! So, we started from scratch finding two boys names that we could agree on. Within a week we had settled on Ashton and Ayden - fairly quick and painless!

A few weeks ago Jeff was taking the boys out of the bath and said something about "Mommy". Ayden immediately repeated "Mommy". Up until this point both Ashton and Ayden referred to me as "Mama" and Jeff as "Dada". After this both boys would randomly call me "Mommy". Random has now turned into about 90% of the time. I loved when they first started calling me "Mama" so often, but I just may love "Mommy" even more!

Ashton and Ayden have an ever growing vocabulary but, their favorite words have always been, and continue to be...names. Ayden does something we affectionately refer to as "role-call". He just calls out everyone's name in the room. Sometimes he adds names to the list as well. Both boys also participate daily in a game where they call out someones name in a way that suggests they have something to tell you or a question for you. We usually respond by repeating their name or by saying "Yes?". To which they always respond with the name of the person again. This will go on and ON and ON. We always participate and think it is really cute! Lately Ayden has been changing it up a bit and will sometimes say "HI!" after my response.

The boys love their "Nana" and anxiously await her arrival home from work each evening! Lately she has also received a new name - "Nanny". They first started this the same time they started calling me "Mommy". I just figured they were playing with a new sound. But, it stuck to "Mama", but not to "Nana". All of a sudden this weekend they started calling her "Nanny" again and doing it probably 75% of the time.

We have referred to my mom as "Grandma". My niece called her "Amaw" (pronounced as if the gr were left off of grandma) when she was little and it kinda stuck, but we were just going to go with "Grandma". As usual, the boys had other ideas! They picked up on "Amaw" really quickly and after visiting them two weeks ago, they are talking about "Amaw" all the time now!

And then their is the issue of "Papa"! We have a "Pawpaw" and a "Popa". The boys don't seem to distinguish much between the two pronunciations though. (It should be interesting to see what happens when they are both in the same room for the first time since the boys have been talking!) Nevertheless, "Papa" is a commonly heard word around this house!

And now the new fav - "Amy"! I wish I could somehow portray over the internet how cute this is when the boys say it! Ayden insists on calling "Amy" almost daily lately - he will actually get daddy's phone out of his pocket while saying "Amy, Amy!!" in a very insistent tone!

I could go on and on with the stories of the boys and their use of names! Everything is about the people in their lives. If they see something that belongs to Nana they say "Nana". If they see a gift from Aunt Amy they point and say "Amy, Amy". When they want to be picked up they say "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, up!"

This is such a fun stage and I am loving every minute of it!