12 Mar Aud-ee
It was only a matter of time. Keegan gave his little sister her first nickname yesterday during speech therapy. He was playing with a little house, and we were identifying all the family members (Daddy, Mama, Rusty, etc). We “named” the little baby Audrey, and after being prompted a few times, Keegan blurted out “Aud-ee”! Oh my gosh, y’all! I just about lost it! He still uses very, very few words spontaneously, but his vocabulary of prompted words is slowly growing. Anything with two syllables is always either Mama, Daddy, or Dee Dee first; then after a bit of prompting, we can get something closer to the real word. I was sure that when Gray got home last night, I’d never get Keegan to say Audrey again, but he did! He seems to like saying it too! The other newer words we’ve heard lately are “beamie” (what we call his blanket), “puppy”, “open”, “off”, “up”, and “shoes”. He still is showing difficulties with the letter P, but we’re so excited for his progress!
And to answer your next question…no, he still has no idea that Audrey is his baby sister, that she’s “in Mama’s tummy” (have really avoided that one as it seems like a confusing concept at this point for him), or that he’s even going to have a baby living in this house with him. So far, he’s completely ignored the other babies he’s been around lately. If you ask him if he’s going to be a big brother, you will get a “yes” or “no” depending on the minute you ask it, so I’m not sure he understands. There have been a few times we’ve asked if he is going to have a baby sister, and he says “no”. Then you ask if he’s going to have a baby brother, and he says “yes”. Sorry, buddy! Don’t think you really have a choice in the matter. Gray and his parents painted Keegan’s “big boy” room this past weekend, and it looks great! He seems to like going in there now, as it’s mostly empty. He particularly likes to get the baby bathtub out of the closet and play in it! Once I have a camera again, I’ll be sure to post work-in-progress pics of his room.
I figured this would be a good time to update about the baby and how things are going. I also promised an explanation of the name a long time ago, and now that we’ve agreed on it for sure, here goes. Audrey has been my “girl name” since I was in middle school. Yes, it is after Audrey Hepburn, an amazing woman of strength, grace, nobility, and compassion. If you don’t know much about her, I assure you that it’s worth the read. Audrey, meaning “noble strength”, was a fitting name of this daughter of a Belgian barroness (Hepburn was a stage name), who fled Belgium for France during World War II and risked her life as a young teen aiding the resistance during the war. Audrey was a ballerina before being discovered by a casting director for the broadway play GiGi. In my much younger and thinner days as a dancer, my family once commented that I looked a bit like her, so my dad started buying me her films on VHS one by one. He started with My Fair Lady, and I was hooked. To this day, it’s one of my favorite movies. I still have every one of her movies that was available on tape, even though I have no VCR on which to play them! So, that’s where the baby’s first name came from, and her middle name, Moyer, is another last name from my mom’s side that has been passed down through the years. It was my middle name too.
We will have our last sonogram at the high-risk OB at the end of April (32 weeks). I have been doing fairly well, except with some struggles with anemia. I’m down to three months left, which seems so far and yet so right around the corner too! If she doesn’t come early, our current plan is to induce on June 14 so that we can make sure Keegan has proper nursing care scheduled. There just seems like so much to cram into that amount of time. I remember that feeling with Keegan, but this time, it seems more pronounced. It’s still so hard to shake the feeling that something will go wrong. I’m trying to lay those worries down and take comfort that God is in control. Still, when it comes to your babies, it can be so very difficult.
We just can’t tell you how much your prayers and well wishes mean to all of us. I hope to have more pictures soon! Get out and enjoy the beautiful spring weather while you can! This is Texas afterall! 😉