The Name Game

I'm sure most parents would agree that deciding upon a name is an exciting, but difficult process. A name that might be adorable for a baby, may sound silly for an adult. And a name that is cool for a teenager/young adult in school, could be a bit too wild for a resume. And, finding one that we BOTH love, not just like, is another challenge. And then you have to brainstorm all of the ways that your child will possibly be tormented with the name that you chose for him/her, because as we all know, kids can be cruel.

When Luke Adam was little he was teased by being called, "A-dumb." He also got annoyed when kids would continually say, "Adam, where's Eve?" or make Luke Skywalker jokes. I was called "Dick Tracy", "Spacey Tracy", and "Trashy Tracy" (thanks to a Garbage Pail Kid). All things considered, our parents did a pretty good job and our names weren't the butt of too many jokes.
A couple of middle names for boys that we have been throwing around are Asher and Axle. If we go with Asher, our kid will definitely be called "Ass-er" and a friend of ours pointed out that Axle sounds a lot like "asshole" when you say it quickly. Tough decision! I kind of have the "sticks and stones" mentality. Won't kids always find something to tease about? It will toughen our child up!

One aspect of naming that I am a little crazy about--OK, a lot crazy about--is name popularity. As a teacher who often has multiples of a name in my classroom, and someone who was lucky enough to go through school without EVER having another kid at school with the same name, I am thoughtful of coming up with a name that is not too popular. I do not want our child to have to be called by their name plus their last initial. Nor do I want teachers and friends to invent nicknames so that there won't be any confusion between my child and another child with the same name. I have nixed some names that we liked simply because they were on the Social Security's Top 100 Most Popular list. (If your child's name is on the list, please understand that I do not think you are a bad namer. Most people do not-and should not-care about this as much as I do. It is a weird obsession of mine.) The only problem with the list is that it is from last year. You have to be somewhat of a psychic to predict what will be popular in the future. For example, if we have a girl, our daughter's middle name will definitely be Rose, after my mother and Adam's grandmother (Helen Rose). We went to see "Sex and the City" a couple of nights ago and the character Charlotte named her daughter Rose. Adam spun his head around toward me and said, "that name is going to shoot up the popularity list!" Darn it!

Here is the Social Security website if you are interested:
http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/popularnames.cgi

One last comment on naming--it is impossible to please all of the people all of the time. Sharing our name ideas with our loved ones (especially my family who always tells you what they REALLY think) has proven to us that not everyone is going to love the names we choose. Adam, who has a way with words, always says, "opinions are like assholes, everyone's got one." I couldn't agree with that statement more. I love hearing people's honest opinion about some of our name possibilities, because sometimes they alert me to negative things about the name that I never thought of. Ultimately though, Adam and I are the ones that have to decide for our little baby what he/she will be called for the rest of his/her life. Poor baby--I hope we do an OK job.

My Husband--The Birth Expert

We went on a wonderful trip to Del Ray Beach, Florida to visit our dear friends (Peggy and David Walters) who recently moved there. The weather was perfect and we had an absolute blast. We visited beautiful Key West and spent a lot of time swimming and laughing. (THANKS PEGS AND DAVID!)
Peggy and David are also expecting their first baby around the same time as ours. (In fact, Baby Walters is due just a day before Baby Morrison--CRAZY!) As you can imagine, there was a lot of talk of babies while we there. One night we were talking about our doctors and where we will be delivering. We told them that we were so impressed with our doctor, who only delivers at Scripps Encinitas, that we changed our mind about the possibility of having a home birth like we originally discussed. David (like Adam when I first mentioned my desire to have a home birth) was curious and started asking questions. Adam PLEASANTLY surprised me with his knowledge!! He was able to answer almost all of David's questions about why women choose to give birth at home and even quoted some statistics about birth methods in the US and other countries. Adam started spewing out facts about many different birth procedures in hospitals and knew so much more than I ever thought he did. I was so impressed! Who would have guessed that my husband (who calls my parents and I hippies) would some day defend home births and know so much about birth in general?!? What a guy!

The boys had a few cocktails together:


After a few cocktails, Adam thought he was a Floridian Pink Flamingo:


The beaches were so beautiful:


The ocean was amazing:

Start Spreadin' The News...

When Adam and I learned we were pregnant, we decided to wait to share the news with friends and family until we got through the first trimester--or until we just couldn't hold it in any longer--whichever came first. My mom and dad live in San Francisco and I really wanted to tell them about their first grandchild in person, which was another key factor in our decision to wait. It was a very hard secret to keep due to general excitement, a psychic mother-in-law, and observant friends, but we managed to do a pretty good job. Keeping the news to ourselves was fun, but sharing it with others has been a lot more fun! Talking about the baby that is growing inside of me is making the whole experience seem a little more real. (The nausea helps too. That seems to be a near-constant reminder of how real it is!)

We're Having a Baby!!!

We discovered the great news May 8th. After taking multiple tests "just to be sure", we confirmed that we are actually going to have our own little baby!! Our bundle of joy has a due date of January 8th. We are very excited to become parents!