First up, I've updated Atticus' site with some new pictures. Check them out here.

Other than that, Atticus is doing OK at the moment. He's sleeping through the night (e.g. 5, 6 or even 7 hour blocks), but the day time is a bit of a challenge. He'll tend to sleep on and off... and we mean on and off (going down for a max of 10 minutes at a time, 5 or 6 times in a row - woo hoo!). He also gets pretty bad wind, which is giving him some real pains - which I'm hoping he'll work through in the next few weeks... we'll find out I guess :)

Labels: Atticus

Steph commented to me today that she was relieved that she had another pair of capable hands around with the kids for the day and that I'd done a great job helping out. Based on that, I thought it was a good point to think about fatherhood, round 2, with Atticus, and how I've been dealing with it. So, this is a post about being a Dad. No doubt, it won't be as eloquent, amusing or deep as a Black Hockey Jesus post, but I've seen him play guitar now, and I reckon I can play better than him, so I don't feel all that bad :)

In response to Steph's comment from today, it made me think two things; that I didn't feel today to be a "chore" or a "challenge", it was just something that had to be done, and for the large part was enjoyable, and the other thought; what the definition of "capable" from Steph was. I pointed out that her definition of "capable" probably rested on the fact that I listened to at least 50% of what she actually said and parented in a similar, though not exact replica, of how she would. God bless the in-laws, kinder, child care worker that Aurora stays with 2 days a week, and anyone else that looks after our kids, but they're usually parenting / teaching Aurora at a tangent (if not at odds) to our principles. And I guess one of the big things that I've realised over the past year or so is that I used to fight Steph a lot on the "Stop telling me how to parent my fucking child" front. I realise that a lot of that was my own frustration at wanting my brain to come up with the same actions, solutions, parenting approaches, whatever that Steph would do, rather than having to be told. That was strong at the start with Aurora, and these days, I think my brain does do it without instruction, and when instruction is given, I happily take it with the understanding that Steph parents to the same end goal that I do; happy, well-mannered, respectful, principled, intelligent children. And that's all that matters.

And with that in mind, the knowledge that it does get better (your kids start to interact, and demonstrate what you have taught them) and the confidence in seeing the brilliant young girl that Aurora has become (in part to parenting on my part), I am more relaxed, confident, hands-on and engaged with Atticus. I recall with Aurora at the start, I had an overwhelming sense of "WTF?" and bewilderment. And while I still have times, such as tonight, when I'm not sure what's going to help stop Atticus' tormented cries (probably from tummy wind), I'm taking it in my stride, and realise that being a parent certainly means not knowing everything... in fact, at times it means knowing almost nothing :)

That's the update for now, check back in a couple of weeks. All may have gone to hell by then :)

Labels: Atticus, Aurora

I'm proud to announce that Atticus' website has gone live. It wouldn't be fair for Aurora to have her own site without her brother having one, so after a few hours this weekend, we now have...

http://atticus.andrewneumann.com/

Check it out across the next few years... I expect an update every now and then :)

Labels: Atticus

I thought it was worth spending a bit of time talking about "the concept behind naming children, according to the Neumanns" (or at least this part of the Neumanns - Steph has her own views, hopefully similar to what's laid out here, but she'd probably write it more eloquently :P)

Since Atticus was born, we've had a pretty polar reaction to his name. I've had a lot (the majority) of people tell me they love the name, it's the coolest name they've ever heard, they love the character from the novel, etc. And I've had a few (the minority) say "Oh... OK...", "Well, that's a bit different" and "Interesting..." (you know, where the word takes a good 10 seconds to say in separated syllables).

This post is not intended to be a reaction to the naysayers - far from it. I've been intending to write this post for many weeks now, to put it out there and beam proudly over the choice of name and the reasons behind it. I'm super excited and delighted to tell people what the names of our children are. It seems as though a byproduct of this post can be at least to give those who are a bit puzzled some more insight into the reasoning behind the names.

So, there are a few overarching principles for us when naming our kids. And if you're unfamiliar with the full names of our two children, they are Aurora Jupiter Neumann, and Atticus Justice Neumann. The principles behind naming them are;

• They need to have strong, bold names
• They need have a theme to the names
• Their names shoudl represent both the masculine and the feminine
• They need to have the initials AJN

Why each of these principles? We want to give our children bold, strong, unique, (hopefully) representative names. We want names that people either react with a "Wow!" or "What?".

In the case of Aurora, we want our daughter to be beautiful, a force of nature, out of this world, and the biggest thing in our universe. Steph came up with Aurora (typically a feminine name), me Jupiter (typically a masculine name). Aurora has 2 origins; the lights in the sky most people know, and Disney's Princess Aurora, aka Sleeping Beauty (that we didn't actually realise until someone told us after she was born - a happy coincidence in naming). Jupiter also has two origins; the planet which most people know (which ties into Aurora's theme), and the Roman mythological god, king of all gods and the sky. We thought Aurora had such an amazing imagery associated with the name and such a feminine beauty to it. And the word Jupiter also has a beauty to it and an "other-worldly" quality.

We want our son to be a moral compass, one who knows and speaks the truth, can show others, is a teacher and a strong, thoughtful man. Steph came up with Atticus (typically a masculine name), me Justice (typically a feminine name). Atticus comes from a single origin for us (although there are plenty of other origins as well); Atticus Finch, the central character in Harper Lee's novel, "To Kill A Mockingbird". From Wikipedia; "The book's noblest character, Atticus represents the ideal of a lawyer, father and human being. He goes to great pains to instruct his children on the importance of being open-minded, judicious, generous neighbors and citizens. He is eventually revealed to be an expert marksman, but he had chosen to keep this fact hidden from his children so that they would not in any way think of him as a man of violence". The thought of this character almost brings tears to my eyes - he is everything I want a child of mine to grow up to be.

Justice on the other hand comes from 3 origins from my perspective; the concept of moral rightness (which ties into Atticus' theme), an album that had significant impact on my teenage years, Metallica's "... And Justice For All", and a TV show / comic book that had significant impact on my childhood years, DC's Justice League. I think the concept of superheroes and fantasy should be a foundation for any little boy, the discovery and love of music (especially political, controversial or critical) is key during teenage years, and the establishment, continued discovery and living of one's key principles (such as morality, ethics, integrity and equality) from early adulthood onwards sums up that progression from the dependent into the individual.

And the last principle? (AJN as their initials). I personally wanted something that the kids would share in their names, other than a surname. Something special that would tie them together, given their names are so uniquely theirs. And there's a little bit of ego in it as well, being an AJN myself, tying them back to me. Steph changed her name from an SJA to an SJN when we were married, so we have SJN (the captain, running the ship) and the three kids; AJN1 (me), AJN2 (Aurora) and AJN3 (Atticus)

:D

So, as you can see, we don't just use a random name generator, or pick wildly from a book when it comes to naming our children. It's the second thing we immediately give our children (behind life itself) and it will remain with them for we hope a very long time.

Long live Aurora Jupiter Neumann and Atticus Justice Neumann.

Labels: Atticus, Aurora

A quick post to let you know that our new son, Atticus Justice Neumann arrived yesterday (17th March, St. Patrick's Day) at 6:27pm. All went (relatively) smoothly with the birth, and he's doing fine. Steph, Aurora and myself are all doing cool as well :) I'll post more later, for now it's family time :)

Labels: Atticus