Donnchadh is love...

He is but that's not the meaning of his name.

Donnchadh, Duncan translates to brown warrior.  I don't know how brown colored he is going to be though.  His hair is close to Neil's but he always seems a bit more reddish to me.  This is how his name is pronounced.  His middle name is the Gaelic spelling of Alastair which is Alasdair.  Jess wouldn't let me spell any of their first names the gaelic way.  To be honest, we didn't have a name for him.  She's lucky I just didnae name him Aonghus.  I think we figured that after two boys, we'd get a girl.

That didn't work out.

We are probably not going to hold our breath for the next one either.

So, we sorta-kinda finally agreed on Duncan.  Then the questions about a middle name came up and Jess relented to the Gaelic spelling.  Which, if you didn't know, Alasdair is Gaelic for Alexander, Malcolm's middle name.

Now, Malcolm's name.  He couldn't be any further from the meaning of his name.  Of course in typical middle child fashion, he get's screwed and they don't have a pronunciation for him.  Máel Coluim which translates to disciple of St. Columba who is credited with spreading Catholicism in Scotland.  He founded the abbey at Iona.  He is the great-great-grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages, High King of Ireland (more on that later).  St. Columba was known as the Dove and Malcolm, also translates as the Little Dove.  Our Malcolm is not a little dove.

If you don't know this already, Mac and Mc in Scots and Irish Gaelic translates to son of.  Therefore, MacNeil (which is the original spelling) means Son of Neil.  Neil, son of Neil.  Neil means "Champion" and apparently is pronounced like this - which is almost how Duncan yells it out when he calls him.  And so, it was originally thought that the Clan MacNeil descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, the High King of Ireland.  If you look at the arms of the MacNeil, you see the Red Hand of Ulster, and nine fetters, a clear reference to the county in Northern Ireland and the hostages that Niall held while king.  The bottom left is a berlinn, the kind of boat that the vikings used.  The top right is Kisimul Castle, the castle in the sea, the seat of the Chief of the Clan MacNeil and the top left is the rampant lion, a symbol of Scotland - notice it is on a field of green, probably a reference to Catholicism.

Further research seems to point to the origins of the Clan not being of Irish descent but rather from Norse viking roots.  If you want more history of the family, you might want to check this out.  There was a good video and if I find it, I will link it.

Anyway, we were talking about Duncan.  It's funny, he's the third and true to form, we forgot about him in the middle of this - this is usually when he goes off and eats crayons, climbs on a table to get food, goes into a closet...to get food.  But yes, Duncan is love.

He's got the best belly laugh of the three.  This wasn't as guttural as it usually is.  He's already super smart.  He's not two yet, but he knows the alphabet (can identify the letters) and at this point, he can pretty much repeat everything that you say.  That's been the last month or so - he's gone from only saying "No" to saying everything.  He's daring and tries to do everything that his brothers do.  He can ride a scooter (for months now) though, he did fall over the front and smash his face and crack one of his front teeth in half.  He's got no fear.

He also loves to snuggle.  He is the most snuggly and outwardly loving of the three.  And he is very much loved.

He's also pretty funny.  And he knows it too.  He's also strong willed and is learning to stick up for himself.  Jess sent a few gems from his discussions with Malcolm this week:

M:  What do you want to watch, Duncan?

D:  Word Party!

M:  Voltron?  Ok - I'll put that on!

D.  No!  Word Party!

Malcolm puts on Voltron

D:  No Voltron.

Voltron keeps playing.

D:  I no watch Voltron Malcolm!

What sandwiches do you guys want.

M: You want peanut butter and butter?

D:  Jelly.

M:  Ok - butter.

Duncan shakes his head, "No Malcolm - jelly."

He also knows how to get your attention when he wants it.  

Happy Birthday - blowing out the candles and all...

Duncan loves to eat.  I mean loves.  He eats anything and everything.  We used to call Malcolm the garbage can because he would eat everything and a lot.  He's got nothing on Duncs.  

Chewbacca

Duncan has lot's of nicknames too - Dunky, Dunky-Duncs, Dunc-Truck, Duncs Mahone, Duncy-Doo, Duncs-ma-junks....and it goes on.  He's up for anything and is probably the most easy going of the three.  Which is not easy when your brothers are constantly manhandling you.  He's also the largest of the three at this age or any other age for that mater, so, eventually, he will get them back.

He knows how to cheer when there is a goal and he even knows how to do it during baseball - sorry Grandpa...

  

Wait for it...

He's learning, pretty quickly, not to put up with an shit from his brothers.  Though he's still at a size disadvantage, he's quick to throw his hands and he doesn't like when you take his mother's attention away from him.  He's very generous - even though his brothers probably do not deserve it most of the time.

And, he's got the cheese face...cheese....

Duncs is love and I wonder how he is going to take the new arrival in December.  I hope it doesn't change him or make him angry.  Most likely, my guess is he will keep on doing his thing, quietly, while no one is looking.  

Updates:

Neil's passport FINALLY came.  It's finally correct.  I was seriously worried about it and thankfully, it made it.  As for the rest of the planning - there's a lot that has not been planned yet and that has me worried.  Jess and the boys are coming home today (Sunday to Monday) but then she leaves for a conference for her work - I'm not really sure when all of this planning is supposed to get taken care of but it definitely has me worried.

As for me, I've been home for a week without them and you'd think that would be a good thing - but it's not.  I'm bored.  And as hectic as it is with them here it's boring without them.  I got some work done on the house today but couldn't get it all done because there was a bees nest starting - just below one of the gutters I was trying to clean.  I evicted birds (long overdue) and hopefully killed the bees I saw.  This bothers me because, I really don't want to kill bees, however, they're getting back behind the shingles and possibly up into the soffit but hopefully not.  You think that a little break would be good and maybe a little one, two days would be but a week is a really long time.  Like really long.  Despite the mayhem, whining, fighting, complaining, whining, hitting and foolishness, it is too quiet here without them.  It's hard to be in a quiet house that is normally filled with so much noise.

What's more amazing is that I am still alive after a week alone.  I am eating ok - not horrible but not a lot.  I blame the heat and stress...which reminds me, I am still between two positions, helping to make sure things are still ok at the old place (but that should be done soon) and then working on the new one.  Leaving my school was one of the most difficult choices I have ever made and I wasn't prepared for the feeling of loss that I felt when announcing it to the staff and feeling like I have let them down or was not being loyal.  I'm very proud of the work that we have done over the past seven years and consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to lead the school in its development and quite frankly, lead it from off the path of heading for closure but now it is time for a new challenge, and hopefully one with the resources I need to do the job that I want to do.  Now, I just need to start being able to bring over some of the people who I really value and I hope I am not walking into a situation where I start to peel back the onion and find more and more layers of dysfunction.  Despite the heavy lift of the old school, it was probably going to be easier because I knew what I was walking into.  Here, I am not so sure.

Gift from the staff - perfect timing with World Cup and just perfect for me!

Typical DoE, I do not have access to everything I need and so it makes it very difficult to get as much done as needed.  Trying to learn about a new school without all of the information that you need is difficult to say the least.  Then, between now and when we leave, Jess will be away for work with Duncs - leaving me with Neil and Malcolm for four days.  Four, all alone.  Hopefully we all make it without anyone losing it.  Thankfully, we will have friends and family who will help with them while I am at work.

I still need to figure out my clothes for the trip, get a new camera, get a haircut, determine what needs to be done here and actually get it done and probably a few hundred other things that I have forgotten.

I should probably write about the trip to the beach - that should be it's own post, though I think the days were pretty monotonous - in a good way.  Go for a walk with Malcolm, swim, watch World Cup, drink, have lunch, nap, drink, swim, cook dinner, go in the hot tub, drink and maybe have a cigar then bed.

Selfies getting better if I can just catch Duncs...

The sunsets in SWFL are awesome - and I am expecting some even better ones on the west coast of Scotland.

Still, despite all the stress, I am super excited for the trip.  I still think there may be something wrong with us, venturing off with three boys six and under for three weeks with a five month pregnant wife.  It will bother me the entire time that we are there that I will have things to do but I suppose that I will just have to suck it up and figure out the stress and know and accept that there is an assload of work when I return.   An assload. I'm pretty sure that's bigger than a shitload but not as large as a fuckload but I could be wrong.  Great, something else to stress out about.