The Night That Changed It All

The Naming Process

"Liam?" I called uncertainly; not sure if he was in the kitchen or not. Not that it mattered, anyway. Liam was never really too far away and had gotten used to me calling him for everything, just as I had when I was pregnant with Lily Ann.

"Yeah?" Liam answered, coming in from the kitchen with a smile as he dried his hands on a tea towel, which he then threw over his shoulder. After plopping down beside me, he took my hand to examine my fingers before grinning at me and dropping it back to my side. "You're fingers aren't as swollen anymore."

"I know. I called you 'cause the baby moved again." I laughed, taking his hand and laying it across my stomach. We then sat in silence until the baby kicked again and Liam grinned, before leaning down to kiss my tummy gently.

"Love you, baby boy." He murmured, 'causing the baby to kick again, which made us both laugh. After kissing all over my tummy, Liam sat up again, then picked up my legs to drape them across his knees and pulled me closer so I was practically sitting on his lap.

"You know, we should really give him a name. Instead of just referring to him as 'the baby' and 'baby boy'." I giggled, looking down at my stomach and rubbing it lightly before glancing back up at Liam, who was watching me carefully.

"Yeah. Don't know how we've left it this late. We found out he was a boy three weeks ago. When we found out Lily Ann was gonna be a girl, we had her named that evening." Liam laughed before lapsing into silence, during which, if you listened closely enough, you could hear soft classical music coming from upstairs. This could mean one of two things: either Lily Ann was doing homework or drawing and since it was Saturday, it was more like that she was drawing.

"Speaking of Lily Ann: if we're going to name this little guy now, we better call her. She wants to help name him, remember?" I reminded, flashing Liam a small smile that clearly said I wasn't going to be calling her. I was just too comfortable to get up right now.

"Yeah, OK: I'll go call her." Liam murmured with a good natured sigh as he moved my legs so he could get up before laying them back down where he'd just been sitting and walking away to call up the stairs to Lily Ann. After bounding down the stairs, Lily Ann followed behind Liam and sat in the arm chair while Liam return to where he'd previously been sitting.

She had paint all over her hands and her t-shirt, which was an old one that was covered in holes. Plus, there was a little bit of it smudged on her forehead, so she must have been painting. I'd forgotten, but she'd started painting a few weeks ago and since then had started to paint most of what she drew. As per usual when it came to arty things, she's excelled at it and her paintings were gorgeous, besides a few little mistakes she hadn't yet learn to avoid.

"We're going to name the baby now and we know you wanted to help with that." I explained in response to Lily Ann's curious stare, which immediately turned into an excited grin at that discovery.

"Oh; good. I've wanted to talk about this since we found out he was gonna be a boy." Lily Ann laughed, carding her fingers together with her elbows braced on the arms of her chair as she looked at us expectantly.

"So do you have any ideas?" I asked Lily Ann, who shrugged a bit before replying. Even with two weeks of thinking it over, she had a very broad answer.

"I think it'd be nice if he had an Irish name, since mine's clearly not Irish. So we continue with your side of the family." She explained, glancing between us before asking; "How did you name me? Where did my name come from?"

"I don't actually know. I think we both just liked the two names. And then when we found out you were a girl, we were going to decide between them, but Louis said why not just give her both names? Which made a lot of sense so that's what we did." Liam explained, grinning at Lily Ann when she nodded in understanding.