H is for

Hippos!

From reading some of my previous posts you'll notice that I sometimes refer to my growing baby as Hippo. While I may have started off calling him 'devil spawn', before we knew that he was a boy we had originally been calling the baby 'Frodo' (don't ask). But one day while I was having a nap I had a crazy dream where I was having a water birth, something that I am not actually interested in doing, but even worse for me, is the water birth was taking place in the dam / duck pond at the back of our house, of all places, mucky duck water isn't where I want to be giving birth! In the dream my mother came out and asked if I was having a baby, my normal sarcastic self snapped back at her that I am in fact having a hippo, hence I'm in a dirty pond. When I woke up from the dream I turned to my husband and told him the baby is now going to be referred to as hippo, and the nickname has really stuck. I guess it helps that I really feel like a big mother hippo at the moment too!

So we've been searching high and low for hippo toys and hippo themed things. We have the little grey fluffy hippo toy, called Fluffy, which hubby ordered from America to be sent over. A few days later my mother found the brown hippo, Cake, at the local post office. While it is actually a door stop and not a toy, I am hopefully it will still take a prized place in little Hippos life. We have managed to find a few other bits and pieces with hippos on them, a bib, some muslin wraps, bedding and some bath toys, it seems there is a lack of hippo-themed baby items. Slightly sad, but I guess it just makes those few things we do find a bit more special.

While we will grow used to calling our son Emerson, I am sure that the nickname Hippo will stick around for some time to come.