I’m stepping up our potty training efforts. Dash will use the potty if he’s naked, but he won’t reliably tell us that he needs to pee or poop when his pants are on. I think the final hump will be teaching him to pull down his own pants. In the mean time, I’m also switching him from Pull-Ups to REAL UNDERWEAR! Here he is watching Yo Gabba Gabba and wearing his new Brobee underpants for the first time.
When I was pregnant with Sam, we didn’t know whether he was a boy or a girl. Not finding out his sex made it twice as hard to pick a name. While we were pretty sure that we loved the name Beatrix Suhani (or Beatrix Lenore) for a girl, we could not come to an agreement about a boy’s name.
I thought the name Dexter was perfect. Dash and Dex sound spectacular together! But Eric was concerned about it being the name of a serial killer on TV. Yet he kept suggesting the name Benjamin after Benjamin Linus on Lost. Benjamin Linus probably killed more people than Dexter!
Eric also liked the name Sam. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. But without other names that we both liked, Samuel ended up in our top three with Dexter and Benjamin.
Even when I was in labor, I thought for sure that our baby was going to be a girl. And I thought for sure that we would use the name Dexter if it was a boy. But when I saw my baby for the first time, and I saw how serious he looked, I knew that his name had to be Sam.
It turns out that the name Samuel is a perfect match for the name Dashiell. Dashiell Hammett, the author that Dash is named after, is actually Samuel Hammett. Dashiell was his middle name! And his most popular protagonist, the detective in The Maltese Falcon, was named Sam Spade.
For a few hours after Sam was born, we still didn’t have a middle name. The names Linus and Miles were high on our list, but they didn’t sound quite right. It wasn’t until my sister was visiting Sam and I in the hospital that the name Emmett was suggested.
My sister remembered that Emmett was going to be Dashiell’s middle name. We changed Dash’s middle name from Emmett to Lane while I was in labor with him. I’m not sure how Eric and I could have forgotten about that! We agreed that it was perfect for Sam, and that is how he became Samuel Emmett Newman.
Dash doesn’t watch much TV. In fact, with the exception of listening to – and mostly ignoring – Dragonball in Japanese with English subtitles while playing on the other side of the room, the only TV he has watched is Yo Gabba Gabba. And he LOVES it. Especially the opening theme song. When the host, DJ Lance, peeks up from the bottom of the screen, Dash goes crazy. Look, I got it on video.
A stranger at the grocery store insisted that Dash and Sam are Irish Twins because they were born less than two years apart. But I looked it up, and Irish Twins are children born within one year of each other – not two years.
Sam was born 19 months after Dash, so they don’t quite meet the requirement. I kind of like the idea, though (as long as the phrase doesn’t offend anybody). I want all of my kids to be close together in age. I’m ready to have another one already! Is there such a thing as Irish Triplets?
I was reminded of Irish Twins yesterday when I used our double stroller for the first time. Seeing Dash and Sam sitting next to each other, it really hit me that they are brothers. They were both looking at me like they were up to something mischievous, and that they were in it together.
For the most part, Dash ignores Sam. Every once in a while, he will point to his brother and say “baby” in a questioning tone. Which is why it was so cute when, during our walk, Dash leaned over and said “Hi” to Sam.
Later that night, Dash crawled under the jungle mat where Sam was laying. I can’t wait to see how their relationship develops as they grow together.
Lauren Newman lives in Richmond, Virginia. She majored in urban planning, married her high school sweetheart, and dreams about moving to Mexico. More »