We often get this question about our daughter’s name ” Vivian.  Huh. Is she named after a relative?” (Read: Your daughter has an old lady name, you must’ve named her in honor of a great-aunt).  And once I got “Vivian? Did you name her after Julia Roberts character in Pretty Woman?  NO! we did not name her after the hooker with a heart of gold.

I love the name Vivian cause it means “full of life”. Brings to mind someone who’s vibrant, vivacious, your best friend. We call her Viv, Vivvers, the Vivinator, Vivi Lou (cause she’s Vivian Louise - two old lady names!) And it’s lyrical. I just keep thinking about roll call in grade school. Her name makes our hard to pronounce last name a little easier to pronounce when said together. Vivian Krhin (Cur-Hin emphasis on the h)

So, today I walked into work and a colleague said, “You’ve started a trend, Brad and Angelina just named one of their twins Vivian.”  No, I had not heard that, as you see I live under a rock  am so out of touch with pop culture with two little ones.  So I had to google it, of course. Dangit! They did. They named their girl twin Vivienne.  Spelled differently but still…now I expect future. “Oh, did you name her after Brad and Angelina’s baby?”  Of course this  probably most irks me because I still stand firmly on Team Aniston.  (I know, I know, get over it…)

So now there is a spotlight on the name and a resurgence will cause her to be one of eleven Vivian/enne’s in class. Here’s what babynamewizard.com already said about the name.

Let’s start with the most surprising of all the Jolie-Pitt baby names: Vivienne.  Surprising because it’s perfectly traditional.  Vivienne is simply the French feminine form of Vivian, modestly common in the U.S. during Vivan’s heyday in the 1910’s-20’s.  In fact, many more Viviennes have been born in the U.S. than in France over the past century.  Vivian is already a comeback name and the Spanish/Italian Viviana is hot too, so Vivienne simply fits in comfortably.

Sigh. That’s fine, all baby names are fair game. It’s a beautiful name and maybe the world needs more best friends named Viv.

Anyone else have a baby name that skyrocketed ? Or did something happen to give your baby’s name a stigma?  I know parents of a Katrina and parents of a Monica that were bummed.

Guest blogger Lucie Amundsen takes back the backyard birthday party….

One of my favorite questions that my children ask me is “what theme was your birthday party?” And I laugh of course, because nearly every 30-something I know had the same theme: party. It had cake your mom made and if you were lucky balloons. You might have played games and might not, but all I really remember is they were fun.

And it was with this in mind that we brought birthday parties back home this year. We had gone “off-campus” previously and with great success. My daughter had a celebration at an indoor playground last year. It came with playtime in the children habitrails, a little room for us to eat the cake we bought and a god-awful gift bag of Asian imports. The cost, including my invites, cake and decorations, was a whooping $120.

My son celebrated at a fire station, which was a very good deal, but we had to bid on it at a silent auction. It truly was a fabulous event – the fire fighters came to our house to pick up the party – and it also ran around hundred bucks.

But it’s not like we’re going way beyond our peers – we’re not. My kids are going to a “Pump it Up” party to bounce happily on inflatables and eat pizza. They are sure to have a terrific time- and they should for the nearly $300 the parents are outlaying.

Gift bags are also escalating. A friend of mine child’s returned from a party last year with a Disney dress-up costume, another child came home with a skateboard – a skateboard!

So this year I challenge myself to see how cheap I could pull this off and still have a great time. (more…)

The very idea of the family bed is enough to keep guest blogger Samara Tilkens Postuma up all night…

This is my 10-month-old son’s bed.

This is my almost 6-year-old stepdaughter’s bed.

This is my 8-year-old stepson’s bed. Interesting, huh? Not only do they have their own beds, they sleep in them too.

As the New York Times revealed last week, a lot of people are doing the whole “family bed” thang. What’s the deal?

I’ve been there at 3am when your child will not go back to sleep and all you can think about is sleep. And I’ve dragged a baby into my bed, or crawled into my 5-year-old’s bed to help her fall asleep. Been there, done that.

But what I haven’t done, is turn the master bedroom into the family bedroom. I guess I like my space a little too much.

Little arms and elbows tend to cramp my style.

And diapers and luxury bedding just do not mix.

Call me crazy, but there are nights when having a baby in a bassinet was too close for comfort. Every little turn or sigh makes you jump out of bed.

Is it because some parents don’t want to say no? And what does it mean for our kids later? My biggest question is: what does it mean for our marriages?

When you’ve got little kids, the bedroom doesn’t have a whole lot of fireworks going on anyway…but when you’ve got kids in bed with you, there are No. Fireworks. Period.

My bed is MY bed and that’s final.

Note: Strib writer Kay Miller is doing a story on co-sleeping and would love to hear your stories - pros and cons on the issues. Do you have a child who displaces your spouse every night? Or has co-sleeping with your babies and kids been the perfect way to bond? Write to Kay Miller at kmiller@startribune.com or call (612) 673-4393. Please include phone numbers.

First came the Cool Parent onslaught. Now comes the Backlash.

James Poniewozick lashes out in Time mag in “Too Cool for Preschool” about the species he calls the “hipster parent memoirist,” the likes of Alternadad and the denizens of Babble.com, which of course had its own comeback to Poniewozick’s comeback. Apparently, even when we start having babies, us Gen X-ers can’t stop having it all be about us, us, us.

When I wrote last year about the relatively mild strain of Cool Parentitis that had hit the Twin Cities, my co-blogger and trendmeister Kay said to me: “Mark my words, there’ll be a backlash.” Okay, so she didn’t say “Mark my words.” But she did say “There’ll be a backlash.” 

Have fun reading. Me, I have to get back to cleaning up after the one-year-old with the stomach bug. Super cool.

Back in October I posted a mild rant about “Birthday Goodie Bags” and received many passionate responses on the topic.

Well, now I just read about a new local web site that just launched this week. They are actually doing something about it. Birthdays without Pressure Some local parents have rallied around the out of control birthday party syndrome that has swept the metro area and the nation. They want to put and end to madness but they need your help! They offer helpful ideas and alternatives as well as an opportunity to share your stories.

Okay, full disclosure: I first read about this site on the San Francisco Chronicle’s witty parenting blog. Scooped by “the Poop” 

And our neighbors to the East…PP

Do you have creative ideas to share on how you have tried to simplify or cut costs on the birthday bonanza?