Six or seven weeks to go till Baby Number Three is here* - our midwife, Caroline, is talking about it being time to leave her emergency kit with us** in case things happen too fast for us to get to the hospital - and we still don't have any idea of what we are going to call it - him! (or her).

Well, Merriol and I don't. Holly has very definite ideas about what she (or he) is going to be called, though the definite idea she has changes from day to day. For a while it was 'Honeysuckle', then it became, 'Stephen', 'Stephanie', or 'Henry'.

My current favourite (thanks, Caroline***) is 'Thundercats'. 'Thundercats Baldwin'. I like it! It has a really nice ring to it. Holly objects on the grounds that "It would be too difficult for a six year old to spell - she would write 'TCats' which is silly."

Daisy likes 'Thundercats' but then she thinks that 'HobNob' is a good name for a baby - she has also wanted to call it, 'Olive', 'Bindi', 'Matula', 'Noodles', 'Tissue', and 'Hair-clip' at various times over the past few weeks.

Merriol who is lumping the baby round has expressed no preferences (that I've noticed) though she has done a brilliant job of shooting down all my suggestions so far. If non-verbal disapproval was a martial art this woman is Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and Jet Li rolled into one. Brilliant ideas crumble to dust with one raised eyebrow and a slight widening of the nostril. (When she's really not liking something it's one eyebrow and one nostril - and not necessarily on the same side of her face.)

We have several weeks to go yet.

I hope her face can stand the strain.


*
Strictly speaking it's here already (at the moment it's in Glasgow shopping, having just been to an Arctic Monkeys gig.)

**
A rubber sheet and one of those sink plunger things?

***
A different Caroline.