Dear Baby,

    Tomorrow you will hopefully become more than an "it." Your dad and I are excited to have more than a baby, coming kid, child or pregnancy. We want a boy or a girl, an Alizabeth or...another name to decide upon. We want a reference to an individual. We want to know you!

    There's just over five months until you're due to enter this world, our lives and my arms. It seems both an eternity and a hopelessly small passage that will elapse before we know it. You're growing so quickly (although, most of the time, I bemoan that a me growing so quickly!). Daddy loves it and, just so you know, he's the best you could ask for. He takes good care of "his girl" (me) or, often, "his girls." If you're a boy I hope you don't take offense to our occansional "shes" and "hers."

    Keep growing little one, just as you're supposed to, and your parents will keep working hard to make your life as good as we want it to be. We love you and we'll see you tomorrow.

     Love,
      Mommy

P.S. Feel free to start kicking...it might have to be hard at first, Mommy doesn't know what she's feeling for!

boy names

thought about and looked up some boy names tonight. a few i liked:

• Clark - "his special talent may lie in his ability to uncover hidden resources both in himself and in others"³; bonus points for Clark Gable and being unpopular (#795 in 2005)²
• Elias - Greek form of Elijah; bonus points for nicknamability (Eli); "at his best when he is at home or in other familiar environments"³; nickname Eli means "my God" in Hebrew¹
• Theodore - means "gift of god"¹; high nickname threshold (Ted, Theo); old-tyme sound; "a born communicator"³
• Byron - "Byron can offer a great deal of aid and comfort to his friends and family. He has profound insights concerning daily life, yet his advice is very down-to-earth and has a definite practical application. Byron is usually dedicated to an ideal, one that is often connected to helping others find their way."³
  
• Arthur - "it is easier for him to integrate others into his realm than vice versa"³; King Arthur (of course)

References:

1. Behind the Name
2. Popular Baby Names
3. The Hidden Truth of Your Name
   

the name game

this site is sweet: popular baby names

its the social security administration's site which has all the stats on children's birth names since the 1880. there are a ton of ways to query the database and its a really high quality time waster.

of particular interest to myself are the pre-1900 names (once you get past #100 or so, we're talkin single digit numbers of babies born with that name) and tracking names of celebrities or cultural icons. for example, track ariel over time. its in the 200s or so until 'little mermaid' is released, when it shoots up the list.

2007

happy new year to all of our friends and family.