We dub thee...

Ryan Edward

Naming our son was actually fairly easy. Edward started with Mike's grandfather (it was his first name). It was passed on as a first name to Mike's uncle, as a middle name to Mike's Dad, and as a middle name to Mike. We always knew we would carry on the tradition. Ryan doesn't have a ton of meaning other than the fact that we've loved the name for ages (and it's Irish!).

There were a few other boy names we liked and tossed around during the first few months of my pregnancy. But we tended to concentrate more on girl names during our early discussions, maybe because deep down, we both already knew which boy name we liked the best.

As we sat in the ultrasound room, waiting for the doctor to analyze the pictures, we talked about names again. I told Mike I was still leaning toward Ryan Edward. (By the way, talking about names is even more exciting when you know for sure who you're naming!) We decided to sit on it for a bit and discuss it again later that night.

After work, we scarfed down some dinner and then headed out for baby shopping. In the car, we easily narrowed our list of about 4 or 5 names we liked to 2 that we loved. I told Mike I'd be happy with either name and he should pick. I am the type of person who has terrible indecision over what kind of sandwich to order at a deli, so I knew I'd only drive myself nuts with this. And I knew I'd be happy with either name.

Mike said it was a huge decision and he needed some time to think about it. I told him (as we got off the freeway and approached Babies R Us) that he should take his time, think about it and let me know. It's not like we were in any huge rush.

Five minutes later, as we walked into Babies R Us, he said, "Ryan Edward. His name is Ryan."

I laughed and said, "I thought you needed to think about it?!"

"Nope, it's Ryan. I don't need to think about it."

So that night, we not only got to shop for our baby boy, but we got to shop for Ryan. And that made it even more special. In fact, that's why we bought the outfit on the left in this picture:


It's a little hard to see in this photo, but that little blue animal on the bib is a rhinoceros. In honor of our little Ryno (Rhino).