Cleanliness is next to Godliness

Kevin picked up Harmon from school on Tuesday and, while speaking with this teacher, she commented that Harmon’s cleanliness is rather refreshing.

Evidently, his class had painted earlier in the day – mixing colors to create new colors – and while every other child was BATHING in the paint, Harmon was distraught if the paint got on the wrong finger. We weren’t surprised as that’s how he is at home too. If he gets even a DROP of food or drink on his PINKY FINGER, he absolutely must have it wiped off immediately. Needless to say, our photo albums don’t contain any of those gross pictures of him with crap all over his face!

Harmon is just detailed, meticulous and must have everything just how he wants it. And, coming from me and Kevin, it’s really not a surprise. I actually think his future wife really will appreciate this quality!

Dec. 5

I had a doctor’s appointment today and Kevin and I had ONE goal – get a c-section date scheduled! I alternate appointments between my doctor and her nurse and, when we met with the nurse in July, we asked about scheduling. She explained that my doctor probably would schedule surgery about a week before my due date (Dec. 13) and she only does surgery on Mondays and Fridays. So, that left us with the choice of Friday, Dec. 5 or Monday, Dec. 8. We talked about it over the last month (and with the doctor today) and decided Dec. 5 would be best. It would allow Kevin two free days (Saturday and Sunday) to be with me (and Simon) during our hospital stay and it would be easier for my parents to take care of Harmon on a weekend versus weekdays when they both work.

Just for fun, though, we looked at the two dates from an historical perspective. We found that Dec. 8 was not so cool because it was the day we entered into WWII in 1941 and the day John Lennon was shot in 1980.

Dec. 5, on the other hand, is Walt Disney’s birthday! And, if you’re a kid, is there any better person to share a birthday with?

So, Dec. 5 it will be … unless Simon has other plans!

Working the phone

Most of the time, Harmon is fearless but there are a couple of things that scare him. One, of course, is the black panther. The other is … our phone. Since we rely mostly on our cell phones, we don’t pay for AT&T voicemail and instead have a phone system with a built-in answering machine. We’ve never set our personal message on the machine so we use the default message which is some weird, male, computerized voice. Harmon HATES this voice so much, simply because of the way the voice says “hello!” We can say “hello” in a similarly scary voice around the house or while we are out and it never fails to get his attention. In addition to the scary voice, the phones blink red if there is a message. For some reason, this red blinking also freaks him out. If need be, we’ll remind him – in that scary voice – that THE PHONE IS BLINKING RED and he’ll straighten right up. Whatever works, I guess!

Funny things

Five funny things Harmon has blurted out recently:

1. After seeing one of 10,000 relentless political ads on TV: “I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.”

2. In response to seeing the Goodyear Blimp at the Ann Arbor Municipal Airport last week (and being grumpy when he saw it): “I’m going to throw Isabel at the Blimp.”

3. His latest takes on my pregnancy: “Mommy, your belly’s getting bigger” and “I just love Simon!”

4. After watching this video (thanks to Awful Announcing):



“Where’d Coach Rod go?”

5. In response to a terse reprimand: “No, Mommy (or Daddy), don’t say that!”

Name origins

The day we shared with everyone that we were having another boy; we also shared the name we chose for our second son. Overall, it’s gotten good reviews but people have been curious about just how we arrived at Simon Abner Bergquist. So, I figured a little background would be helpful. And, one day, when Simon is old enough to read this blog, he’ll know the origins of his name.

After having Harmon – being the planners that we are – we thought we should think of another boy name just in case we didn’t have a daughter (whose name was to be Maizey Bryn Bergquist). Initially, we liked other “H” names like Heath and Hyatt but we quickly gravitated to Simon. We like how it sounds on its own and we like how it sounds with Harmon. Most importantly, though, we like that Simon wouldn’t be sitting in his kindergarten class with five other Simons around him. After being surrounded by other “Kevins” and “Amys” our whole lives, we decided early on that we wanted our children to have truly UNIQUE names.

Simon, according to babynames.com, is a Hebrew name meaning “to be heard.” While Kevin is Norwegian and German and I am Mexican and German, using a Hebrew name doesn’t matter to us in the least. We like it and that is that! And, just to be clear, it has nothing to do with the Bible, Alvin and the Chipmunks, American Idol (believe it or not, we’ve never even watched an episode), OR Michigan football.

As for Abner, this one was ALL Kevin’s doing. One day, way before I was even pregnant, we were talking about boy names and Kevin said “what about Simon Abner, you know, after Abner Doubleday, the inventor of baseball?” Of course, baseball was all I needed to hear and I was on board! We think it’s great because it’s unique and has its roots in baseball, which we both love. Abner is also a Hebrew name, which means “father of light.” Lastly, just like Simon, Abner has nothing to do with the University of Michigan.

So, there you have it! The name origins of Simon Abner Bergquist.

And, so as not to ignore Harmon, a quick note about his name. Kevin and I first became aware of the name while working in the U-M athletic department because of Tom Harmon, former U-M football All-American and Heisman Trophy winner. While we love Harmon as a first name, he is NOT named after Tom Harmon. We love it simply because it’s a TRULY unique name, not registering on the U.S. Social Security Administration’s popular baby names list since the early 1900s. Harmon, of German origin, means, “soldier.” Harmon’s middle name, Spencer, is of English origin and means “butler, steward.” Other than loving how it sounds with Harmon, it has NO context (not a family name, not a U-M athlete’s name, etc.).

Random photos

Two totally random photos from Monday, Aug. 4.

First, Harmon at the dentist with his hygienist, Kim. Overall, he was a good boy for his second dentist appointment, only crying a little during the actual teeth cleaning. He got over it, though, as you can see!

After the dentist, Harmon desperately wanted to go to lunch with his Daddy so Kevin rewarded him with a rare trip to Chuck E. Cheese. They both had a good time, despite the freakiness of the photo!

33

Harmon is 33 months’ old today. In just another three months, he’ll be three year’s old – unbelievable! He’s been doing fine enjoying his summer walks and trips to the park.

Another thing he’s been enjoying this summer is TV and radio ads. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s an advertising genius one day. He loves any and all ads for freecreditreport.com, as well as ads for the DIA, Cedar Point and any window or roofing company (especially call 1-800-4-MR-ROOF)!

One thing he also has loved lately that we’re not too crazy about is the word “butt!” He says it all the time, although never really in context. He instead likes to slip it into nursery rhymes and songs and such. We DO say “butt” but usually in the context of playfully saying “I’m going to smack that butt” or “your butt goes on the potty” and stuff like that. We keep telling him it’s not funny and I think he KNOWS this. He just likes to test us.

We’ve spent a lot of time lately preparing him for his new role of big brother. We bought him six different books about becoming a big brother and he loves them all. The week we bought the books, we read them every night before bed and sometimes a couple of times during the day. This past weekend, we bought “Bear Feels Scared” and “Where’s My Mummy?” to break up the monotony of big brother reading. All in all, though, I think he’s getting it.

Part of becoming a big brother, at least for Harmon, is getting a whole new room. Instead of putting together ANOTHER nursery, we’ll move Harmon into the den and put Simon in the nursery. The den is painted a very dark shade of blue and I’ve already got his bedding. Now, I just need to take care of things like window treatments, lamps, rugs, sheets, etc. I hope he likes it because his new room will be the bulk of his birthday present!

The potty training is going very well. He is doing great at school – leading his class in potty stickers – and is doing great at home too. Although we’ve still been putting him in diapers at night (which are dry most mornings), he is in pull-ups the rest of the time. When we know we’re going to be homebound for a considerable amount of time, we let him wear underwear. He’s done pretty well – only a couple of accidents – but we haven’t ventured out of the house with the underwear yet. I think that probably will happen later this month. So, ALMOST there!

A few other totally random things. Yesterday, he was stacking his cars on top of a semi-truck he has. When we saw this, we thought we HAVE to find him a car carrier. So, last night at Toys R Us, we did just that. We found him a car carrier that holds six cars and he was as happy as a clam! The smile on his face was priceless – he’s a kid with simple needs! While at Toys R Us, we had him try some tricycles. We’ve tried in the past and he’s not been interested but he was last night. So, I think we might get him this one. He’ll get some use out of it before it gets cold and then he’ll have it all next summer. Lastly, and I’ve meant to write about this a million times, he LOVES his photo albums. Kevin and I take WAY too many pictures of him (at LEAST 1,300) and I put them all – complete with dates, locations and captions – in photo albums. So far, there are eight albums and they are in his room on his bookshelf. He pulls these out and will flip through them for huge chunks of time. He just loves seeing his family members along with the places he’s gone and the things he’s done. It makes me feel SO GOOD about all the effort I’ve put into those things over the last 33 months!

Are you ready for some football?

Michigan started football practice on Monday and even though most experts think a .500 season is in the cards, I’m still pretty damn excited about what is to come. Here are 10 things I am SO looking forward to this season:

1. I literally have NO IDEA what the first offensive play of the game will be. The predictability of the past and our stone-aged offense are GONE!

2. The team probably won’t run out of gas and blow a game in the fourth quarter. And, we won’t have to see the fat lineman with their hands on their hips after Ohio State spends an afternoon in our backfield.


3. We probably won’t see opposing offenses - seemingly hemmed in - breaking free and running down the sideline for a touchdown while our slow, fatass players are laid out on the turf.

4. The offense MIGHT go for it on a crucial fourth down instead of wimping out, punting and playing the good ole’ field position game.

5. The new coaching staff won’t coach scared and hopefully won’t worry about dropping 50 on someone if need be. Don’t fool yourself, style points count!

6. Young coaches with fires in their bellies who will get in players’ faces (as opposed to reading them poetry and feeding them milk and cookies).

7. Seeing players actually play to their potential. In the past, SO many players haven’t been coached, developed, prepared or conditioned the right way while at Michigan. And then fans wonder why these players go on to succeed at the next level.

8. Seeing a Michigan football program that is open with the media instead of hiding EVERYTHING inside of Fort Schembechler.

9. Not having to watch Michigan Replay and hearing Coach Carr say “well …” every five seconds while trying to explain away another loss.

10. COACH ROD!