The Power of a Name

Allison has a temper. When she doesn’t like something, she throws whatever is handy. Usually it’s her pacifier or whatever toy she’s holding on to. She doesn’t just throw those things when she’s mad. She throws things when she’s done, when she’s bored or for a game. This weekend was full of the perfect examples. We were driving to Blacksburg to meet our friends from the Adoption Group for bowling and dinner. She hadn’t napped at Granny and Papa’s like we had expected her to do. So, we expected her to fall asleep as soon as we took off. Nope. She was wide awake and she was wired. At some point she started throwing her pacifier around the van. If I didn’t act to retrieve it for her, she would say “Uh oh!” with increasing intensity. She was throwing it so hard that it hit the dashboard and my knee at one point. At dinner that night, she was throwing her sippy cup across the table. We had to take it away from her. This girl doesn’t throw like a girl, either. She throws overhand like a champ. On Sunday, during Emma’s rest period, she was playing with a ball and she would throw it right at Danny and me when we asked her to. Her aim is much better than I would anticipate a 16 month old having.

Before we knew that Allison was going to be a girl, we had the name Nolan picked out for a boy. Almost every time I would tell someone that we had selected that name for a boy, Nolan Ryan was brought up. He was the only Nolan most people had ever heard of. I know who Nolan Ryan is but I’m a little too young to remember Nolan Ryan playing baseball or to have idolized him growing up. Danny could have, but he’s never been into sports. I picked out that name after talking with one of my co-workers about her son. How interesting that the association with a name she’ll never have shed some light on Allison’s personality and may have shed some light on her talents long before she was ever born.