What's in a name?

32w 5d

I didn't have time to get everything ready for the shower recap last night, so today will be a double post day, with the recap this evening.

Nancy brought up a wonderful suggestion in the comments yesterday. I left a lot out about the baby's name! Here are some more interesting (or not-so-interesting, depends on who you ask) tidbits about BL's name:

How we chose it: I had started a list of names that I liked probably around 12 weeks into this. I kept it tucked into a baby names book and would add/cross off names as I felt necessary. Paul refused to think about baby names until we knew what the baby's gender was, because being an engineer, why on earth would you waste precious time thinking about girl names if you are having a boy when you could be designing something in a CAD program? Because it's fun damnit, that's why. Finally, around 20 weeks when we knew BL was of the boy variety, we began seriously talking about names. We never tried to strangle one another, or come up with bribes. We actually almost always agreed.

One day, I was flipping through a Pottery Barn Kids catalogue when I came across the no-longer-existing-online Mason bedding collection. I yelled out to Paul, "What about Mason?" and he agreed that it was a good name. And so it was added to the list. A couple days/weeks/can't remember later, we went to Crapplebee's for dinner and started discussing the names again. Once we had both realized that Mason was on the top of both of our lists we agreed that Mason it was.

His middle name was a toss up between two names for a while, but we ultimately decided on Theodore to pay tribute to Paul's grandfather who passed away semi-recently. This only seemed fair since if we ever have a girl she would automatically have the same middle name as me.

So there it is - the truth behind the name. Pottery Barn Kids.

What an online baby name advisor has to say about all this:

Mason (French: Stone worker; from French word maçon.) Theodore (Greek: Gift of God)

Powerful, a conqueror, devours the weak and rules the strong. The name Mason Theodore reflects money and power. It is a carnivore, a winner at all cost. -this makes dad happy.

Mason Theodore has the power and potential to achieve great things. Whatever the enterprise, it strives to be the best and most successful in its field. Extremely competitive and not afraid of challenges or challengers. A visionary, a realist, and a planner. Discipline and perseverance. Dynamic and efficient.

Rewards the faithful and hardworking employee, but has no tolerance for the incompetent. -just like dad!

Mason Theodore understands the balance between giving and taking, generosity and greed. When it loses that balance, it self-destructs.

Mason Theodore's most positive characteristics: Strength, perseverance, potential for greatness.

Mason Theodore's most negative characteristics: Financial ups and downs. Lacks compassion. Can be self-destructive. -this scares mom.

It is going to be quite interesting watching this little guy and seeing if he lives up to almost-startling predictions of an online baby name advisor.

Why he sticks to roulette.

32w 4d

Today's post was going to be the shower number 2 recap, but I have something much better to write about, so it will wait until tomorrow. This does have to do with a shower a teensy bit though. There was a slight incident at the shower on Saturday.

There I was, sitting on my in-law's back deck, chatting it up with some lovely people at my shower when all of the sudden my sister-in-law Chrissy opens the back door and informs me that someone had just guessed BL's name and Paul's poker face was less than stellar. I excused myself to go inside and "kill my husband", or beat him, or something violent, I can't quite remember which. I no longer wanted to hurt him once I came through the door and saw the poor guy sweating bullets.

Evidently, a family member was just running through names trying to guess when she said it and Paul was completely caught off guard. Up until this point no one has been able to correctly guess BL's name so this was not an issue. I know she felt horrible, but honestly and secretly I was kind of relieved. Do you know how hard it is to keep yourself from blurting out a name in public that you regularly use in the comfort of your home? Paul and I decided that it was best to just announce it after I opened my gifts. I always kind of had it in my head that if that ever happened, we would just tell people. I feel better now, with bouts of disappointment that I have yet again ruined a surprise, but this time not for myself (Paul is the only person to ever successfully surprise me, ONCE). Overall though, I am happy it is out there, happy that people know and can now say it, happy that I can hang his name in his room without having to take it down when visitors come over, and happy that we even made it this far without slipping.

So without further ado, The Baby Luc's name is Mason Theodore.

Somehow, I still think he will be BL to many people for a long time and that's just fine with me. I have been reminded that there are still lots of surprises left with Mason's impending arrival, and isn't that the truth!