My husband is in the Army National Guard, and this last weekend his unit had its annual summer picnic in the park. Sasha and I met Jon at his armory and he drove us over to the picnic location. We met some of his platoon and squad members, and ate barbecue.
The park that the picnic was held was one of the nicest I've ever seen. There was a large busy outdoor pool and water park, multiple play areas for the children, and the playground equipment looked very modern and high quality. So it didn't take long before Sasha was itching to start playing at the playgrounds. They did look fun! After we finished our meal, we all went to the playground to play. Yes, all of us. The cool thing about having kids is being able to play on playground equipment with your children! I was a little tired of standing and looked for somewhere to sit, but there were so many pregnant women sitting on the park benches that I didn't see a spot to sit down. There seems to be a baby boom around this town.
The swings were open, so I decided to sit on a swing. Sasha followed me to the swings and sat on the swing next to me, and Jon pushed the both of us. It was fun and amusing for all of us. Because I was being pushed, I was swinging quite high and fast. I started to wonder aloud at what my poor unborn 30-week baby in my belly thought of all the swinging, and Sasha found my musings on the topic hilarious. She made a little baby voice and pretended to be the baby, all confused at the back and forth motion going on.
Here is where I mention that we have been referring to our unborn child by his name, Killian. There, now you know his name. Sasha was laughing and yelling "Killian is like, (baby voice) 'Hey what is going on?'". There was a woman pushing a toddler on a swing next to me, and she just halted when Sasha mentioned the name.
"What was that name she just said?", the woman asked me. "Who is she talking about?".
Jon and I explained to her that I was pregnant, if it wasn't obvious, and that we were naming our unborn son Killian.
She dropped her jaw in astonishment. She was also pregnant with a son, due a month after me, and her top name consideration for her unborn son was also Killian. She had never heard the name used before, and explained that it was a name of her grandfather. I also chose the name after my grandfather, so we bonded a bit over the coincidences. She explained that her mother-in-law hated the name and worried that a child named Killian would get called "Killer". I told her we'd embrace the nickname if that occurred, and that nothing sounded more awesome to me than imagining my future son going up to bat in a little league softball game, cheering "GO GET 'EM, KILLER!" at him to urge him on to greatness. She said that for the first time, she felt good about the potential nickname if it should come up, and that she really felt that Killian was the name of her son. I told her I don't even mind sharing the name with her, even though I expected that there would probably not be any other Killians in town. She did live in a different town, I rationalized, so the two would not be in the same classroom anyways.
As I parted with the woman, she and I walked to where her mother-in-law the name-hater was sitting. She told her mother-in-law that I was also naming my son Killian, to which the mother-in-law haughtily replied, "Good, she can have it". I walked away as the poor woman continued to try to convince her mother-in-law that it was a good name for the baby, but the mother-in-law looked unconvinced.
I suppose I shall never know if she is ever successful in naming her child what she wants. Some day, perhaps the two Killians will meet in the city again. Maybe the woman will bow to the pressures of her family and find a new name, or maybe she'll stick with it and it'll grow on her family like it did ours.
