The Baby Bug is Spreading

Congratulations to our friends Channing and Kelly down in Austin, they have a new healthy nine pound baby boy! We're sure he'll grow up to be every bit the rock star that his dad is. Congratulations are also in order for our Houston friends Bill & Katherine, they called the other day with a little bit of exciting news, they're expecting a baby too! Katherine is due about two weeks after Elaine, so it's nice that Elaine has a friend going through some of the same things.

We've been thinking about going back to Texas in May to visit folks, and there certainly would be some great photo opportunities, but Elaine's not sure she'll be up for flying that late in the pregnancy. Last weekend we flew up to Boston with Joe & Cate to visit Nabeel, Megan, and Kaden as well as Billy, and the flight was a bit rough. 55 mph wind gusts in Boston forced us to circle for almost an hour with some heavy turbulence, and that quickly disabused Elaine of the notion that the she left the morning sickness behind with the first trimester.

Despite the rough flight, we had a great time in Boston. It was fun seeing Kaden again, and I don't care what CBS news says, it really was exciting to see him up and walking around. (I won't get into the whole daddy blog debate here, you can follow the links and read all about it over at Start-Up Dad or Daddy Types. Needless to say this blog is simply designed to share pictures and stories with family and friends, not to earn a million dollars or impress CBS). Billy served up a served up a bounty of McDonalds and donuts for Sunday brunch (thankfully he also made omelets). We played some poker, visited some museums, and toured Nabeel and Megan's new house. Of course that's now set off our own home search back here in DC, but that's a whole different story.

(click here to see my pictures from Boston, or here for the slideshow)
(click here to see Nabeel's pictures, or here for the slideshow)

What's in a Name?

Elaine and I have a few ideas for names that we've been kicking around for some time now, but we haven't quite found that name that we just know is right. Unlike some of our friends, we haven't always known the perfect name for our child. Brandon & Anneke have already staked out "F. Loyd" for a potential baby (the 'F' stands for Furious), and our friend Ross Lord long ago laid claim to the names "Over," "Drug," "My," and "Crime" for his children (of course Ross has a similarly interesting name in that if the right 18 people die he would become "Lord Ross Lord, Lord of Ross").

So in the interest of expanding our horizons and seeing if there is some name out there that we haven't thought about yet, but would be perfect for our child, we're opening up the comment section of this post for a baby name contest! The grand prize of course is us using your suggestion for our baby's name. However, we reserve the right to stick with a name of our own choosing (who knows what you folks will come up with), in which case the winner gets to tell our child, "you were almost named (your suggestion here!)"

To kick things off, here's one of the suggestions we've already received from Elaine's uncle Pete:

Nothing is "sweeter" than a boy named "Peter." Or neater. Or, for those who work at Wal-Mart, a better greeter. PLUS, naming a child Peter has the added advantage of being able to tell everyone that the name was in honor of Allen's anatomy.

Reactions

One of the best things about finally being able to tell everyone we're expecting is seeing the wide range of reactions. Our friends that already have babies are some of the most thrilled about the news. You could almost hear the chanting, "one of us, one of us," a palpable excitement that we've joined the ranks of the breeders. Nabeel already has a post over on 'Start-Up Dad' about the news, and 'Marginal Benefit' has been added to the list of 'Daddy Blogs.' On the other hand our single friends have tended to be happy for us, but a bit freaked out about the news. Maybe it's a little mix of making them feel older and our impending lack of freedom to hang out as often as we'd like.

Of course Joe & Cate weren't at all surprised, and Elaine's mom seemed to have a pretty good inkling about what was happening, but for the most part people were impressed with how well we kept the secret. My sister was completely shocked, and I think somewhat relieved that the baby will distract our extended family from trying to convince her to get married this summer. Dad was just thrilled that he's going to be a grandfather, and my grandfather was simply happy that the day didn't go by without some interesting news. As for Mom's reaction, since Katherine couldn't be in town, she convinced me I should get a video of Mom finding out she's going to be a grandmother. So here it is:



There's a little more to this story, I had posted the news to the blog before we told Mom, so when we went over for my birthday brunch, there was a slim chance that Mom had already stumbled across the news. When we got there I did a quick check of the computer and noticed that someone had looked at the blog that morning, but since Mom was acting so calm, I assumed that Don must have been the one that read the blog. It turns out that Don had read the blog not long before we got there, and upon seeing the news he yelled for Mom to come over and see something. With a little bit of quick thinking and clicking, he decided that it was best to keep the secret from Mom a little longer, so he quickly closed the browser before Mom got to the computer, made up some excuse for calling her over, and left to go walk the dog so he wouldn't spoil the surprise. As you can see from the video, she didn't suspect a thing.

We're Having A Baby!

So now that my birthday has finally rolled around, it's time to let everyone in on the little secret that we've been trying to keep for the last few months. Yes, it's true, Elaine and I are having a baby!

The baby's due date is tentatively August 16th, and if look around the blog you'll notice a few changes. There's a new counter in the sidebar ticking away the days until the baby arrives, and if you scroll down, you'll see a slew of old posts that are just now being published. Since we weren't telling anyone about the baby until after the first trimester, all the things I was dying to tell people about went into the "secret" blog posts instead. Now the secret is out and all those posts are live, so feel free to comment, email, write, or call us, we'd love to hear from you.