Naming Our Baby

People ask us what we're going to name our little boy and, well, we still have no idea. This is a problem because he could come in the next month sometime and we're really not much closer to picking a name we like than we were four months ago.

Some of you have heard of our joking names: Conan (like the Barbarian) or Jebediah Obadiah Zephaniah Taylor III. Some of you have heard of the real possibilities we have discussed: Caleb, Eli, and Noah, and most recently, Caelan. The first three stopped appealing to me so much when I ran into a friend whose wife is pregnant with their second baby boy. I asked if they knew what they were going to name the baby and this friend said, "Oh, we've tossed around names like Caleb . . . and Eli." Feeling that these names might be in vogue at the moment, we looked online and found that all three Biblical names were in the top-listed names of use for 2007.

The last name, Caelan, has lost some appeal since we met my mom's cousin at the family reunion. He is also named Calyn (spelled differently, pronounced the same), so Patrick asked him how he liked his name. We'd had people tell us it sounded too much like Kaitlyn, but it had more impact when he said he didn't care for it too much because his older brothers were always telling him it was a girl's name. I could have ignored everyone else's predictions more than I could ignore Calyn's personal experience. Patrick said our child will be the oldest so he wouldn't have anybody to say that to him, but I'm sure there will be plenty of people that would say that to him even if they aren't older brothers, so I'm leaning away from that name now.

So now we're stuck again. I asked Patrick if he thought it would be so hard if we were having a girl because there are quite a few girl's names we like, and he said he thought it would just be different hard. Here we have too few names we like, but with a girl we'd probably have trouble narrowing it down.

The problem is that we're pretty picky. Here are some of our hang-ups:

1. We like the idea of unique names that aren't too strange sounding. Somebody asked me if we meant "unique" like my name or like Patrick's name (which isn't strange at all, but isn't extremely common). I asked Patrick what he thought and I expected him to say like his name, but he said like my name instead.

2. Furthermore, I don't care very much for one-syllable names. Patrick has thrown the name Seth out there and I just shy away from such trite sounds.

3. I also worry about the "cuteness" of sound repetition, so I don't like names that start with "T" or that end with "R" because of our last name. So we talked about Schylar as a possibility, but Schylar Taylor is too sing-songy. Even with Caelan, I asked Patrick if it sounded funny to have the vowel sound repeated (the "a" sound), and he just looked at me like I was insane. I guess that's just my education going to work . . . or going to extremes.

4. Patrick doesn't like Book of Mormon names. We both like Bible names, but so do the rest of the parents of this generation apparently.

5. I like names that are meaningful because I always thought it was fun that my name meant "little fiery one" and my brothers' names mean "Exalted of the Lord" and "Gift from God." My mom could tell us that and we could feel that there was something significant to our names and perhaps to ourselves because of that. (I don't know that my brothers did, but the point is that they could have if they'd wanted to, and I know I certainly did even though my name is a pagan name and not religious at all.) Unfortunately, there are a lot of names that sound all right, but have really lame meanings, like "hillside" or "baker" or something equally unexciting.

6. Patrick doesn't like names that are androgynous: if it's a girl's name it should stay a girl's name, and vice versa. This last isn't really a problem for me, especially not for a son. I'd be more tempted to do that for a girl than for a boy (after all, Jo March is one of my all-time favorite characters).

So here we are without anything to speak of. My mom and others have said that we might know when we see the baby. However, we've also heard a few stories about children who were unnamed for awhile after birth and I hate the idea of taking a child home without a name. This means that I at least want to have some names to pick from that we know we like. The most embarrassing thing about this is that he's our first child. The first should not be so difficult I think, but perhaps after struggling so much with this child's name we'll be warmed up for any younger brothers. At least I hope so because it's ended up being slightly frustrating. Anybody have any ideas of names that meet all of our previous stipulations? Either way, thanks for reading this long rant by a person obsessed with names. (And may I just conclude that it's much easier to come up with names for fictional characters than for a real flesh and blood little child that will blame us if he gets a complex from his name.)

Miller Reunion

Just this weekend, we attended a big family reunion. It's the first one in my memory. The last one was when I was around 1-3 years old (I can't remember exactly). These were the descendants of my great-grandparents, Leroy and Kate Miller. Grandpa Leroy passed away when I was about 12-years-old, but Grandma Kate just passed away in December of 2007. She was waiting to go pretty much since the time of her husband's passing. I don't mean "waiting" in the sense of not doing anything, but she did wonder why she was still here after Grandpa Leroy died. These were two really good people, and--if I do say so myself--they produced some fantastic descendants. It was fun to see these family members again (as I had met most of them at some point) and to catch up on their lives.

My Grandma Billie planned the weekend and it went great. We had all sorts of fun activities to help people play together and get acquainted. There was also enough down time to rest and relax.

One of the activities Grandma arranged for was a scavenger hunt. Susan (the woman to my right in the picture and one of my mom's cousins) commented that it wasn't exactly a fair arrangement since she had four kids and a pregnant woman in her group. That being the case, I think we were a fun group even if we didn't win. Albeit the kids were saying, "We'll just leave the adults to do this. We're just kids" sometime after the second clue. This coming from an eight-year-old (one of the oldest in the group), I said pishposh and made them stay until we all thought we were done.

My oldest brother doesn't care for the high altitude near Flagstaff and didn't think he would make it, but his daughter was sad about that, so he made arrangements to come at the last minute after all. This is a picture of them together.



This is my dad. There are real-life cowboys in our family, but my dad doesn't qualify. That's why I thought it was funny that he's wearing a sort of cowboy hat. I didn't even notice it at the family reunion, probably because he was out-shone by Matt, who had an authentic cowboy hat and looked the part a bit more. Of course, we made two movies and I was in the western, but I didn't have any right to that either. My dad looks more the part than I did wearing Patrick's basketball shorts and my baggy T-shirt.

My mom brought her parrots. One is an African Grey (named Isaac) and one is a Cockatoo (named Asimov). Asimov was in heaven with all the attention. He just stood there, grinding his beak and fluffing out his feathers. My mom's cousin Erin is in the picture below. She is an animal person like my mom and got along famously with Asimov (who Patrick doesn't care for very much at all, but he doesn't claim to be an animal person in the first place). Also below are Jamie, Erin's daughter, and her fiance.

This is my sweet niece. I got to spend almost the entire weekend with her. Well, she stayed in my parents' cabin, but we played during the day. This is soon before she left to go home with her mom.

Patrick's favorite day was the last, Sunday. By then, people had loosened up so everyone had become familiar with each other , and those who were already comfortable with each other had visited out all the missing years. The first group included the teenagers and kids and the second group included the adults; that meant that everyone was in the mood to play, which Patrick enjoys much more than visiting. Plus, it rained off and on all day so it was much cooler than it had been. Below, Patrick is playing dominoes with my cousins Dana and Toby, while my niece and her mom are looking on. All three of the players talk a lot of smack so it was entertaining to watch/listen to.

This is my dad acting like a scarry gorilla, chasing after one of the kids. (She's on the side of the picture running away while looking back at him.) The best part of this exchange was when my dad paused in the middle of the chase to pet Dana's dog, T-Bone. If the girl had seen him do it, she probably wouldn't have been so scared. Patrick and I were amused watching from afar, I guess because he plays the part so well it was funny to see it switch off briefly and for such a trivial but nice reason.

Another fun event was "the hayride." We weren't sure we'd participate in that one. For one thing, I am not big into bumpy rides these days, and for another Patrick's allergies probably would have gone crazy from the hay. However, there wasn't actually any hay on the ride, and I decided I'd hate to miss out (especially since Patrick wanted to go and thought I ought to come), so we went. It wasn't really too bumpy most of the time and it was fun visiting time while we rode around. We went on the second ride with the my parents' and grandparents' generation. This first ride was my generation and the one below me.

Below is a picture of me and Patrick (framed by a hula hoop (don't know why)). I think this is a funny pregnancy picture because my stomach looks so bubbled up.

I had to put in a nicer picture of us where we don't look so lazy and exhausted and (in my case) big. Plus, one of the nicest things about the vacation was all the time we got to spend together. With Patrick doing work and school right now, there are times that we don't seem to spend a lot of time together, so this was a nice break from the everyday busy-ness of life.

Our Life Reviewed Through Pictures

Soon after our trip to Wisconsin, we got back and Thayne opened his mission call to the Belgium, Brussels/Netherlands Mission. He was a little concerned that he wouldn't leave until a few weeks into September when he wants to begin school soon after he returns, but relatives assured him that it can still be arranged, and we think it's cool that he'll be around when the baby's born.

The dangerous weapon I got Patrick for his birthday was a water balloon slingshot. He and Keith attempted to test it when Thayne and Savannah arrived at their house. I don't think Thayne got wet at all, but they did get Savannah who was standing next to him. Below is Patrick's first time testing it. I think it works pretty well.

Below is after Patrick's birthday celebrations. We had two wrapping paper rolls laying around probably finished off with his birthday presents. There's one picture of Michelle and Aimee both beating up on him, but this one is funnier because of Michelle's expression and Patrick's posture. I think this whole episode scared Michelle's baby, Cosette, a little, but I guess if she's going to get to know Patrick then she'll have to get used to sudden attacks and outbursts like this.

Once a month (usually on the first Sunday of the month) we get together with all the nearby family and have a family dinner. For July, we are a week late so that everyone could be there. I'm excited because we're in charge of dessert and I have a cinnamon cake recipe that's so good that we're going to make. This is from last month. It was the first time we'd had the dinner at Julie and Dallas's house. I think their son is taking the picture here of Bethany and Randi. Bethany likes to say the two of them are sisters. Though they are cousins in reality, they do have fun together.

Here's Bethany making a funny face again. She's pretty amazing on a guitar and I don't think she's taken lessons except informally from her mom. I took a semester-long class and she plays WAY better than I do. In fact, I don't really play at all.

This is the rock lesson for the boys at church. Patrick is painting "PRAY" on the rocks. Doesn't he look so intent? It was a fun project. Since they're supposed to go on your pillow, later we made one for Pattie as a joke that says, "WATCH YOUR HEAD!"

This is Cosette's first birthday. Her mom gave her chocolate cake. I thought she didn't look as delighted by the whole thing as I imagine I would be. However, she does look cute . . . and messy.

This is Cosette's cousin beating up on Patrick. I know he looks like the victim in these pictures, but I really think Patrick starts the roughhousing a lot of the time.
This is Independence Day at Mickie and Keith's. They made delicious chicken, which you can see on the grill. I'm hungry just remembering it. For Independence Day, by the way, Patrick and I slept in and then got up and filled water balloons and water guns and went in hunt of friends we could get. We got our friends Debbie and Jeff with the water guns a little, though they stayed hidded in their house when they saw the water guns which we'd left for them to defend themselves. The water balloons we saved all day until we arrived at Mickie and Keith's and then we snuck around back while Keith was grilling and attacked him. He was a great sport about it . . . which was probably easier to do when we didn't get him very wet. (I don't think I got him at all.)

Here is proof that Patrick often starts it. We filled up the water guns again before going over to Mickie and Keith's. And he shot people pretty liberally as I recall.

This is Bethany retaliating. She looks so nonchalant about it that the picture looks a little creepy but it is a water gun, as evidenced by the bright yellow and purple on the gun and by Patrick smiling while he tries to duck away.

And this is me and Pattie settling in to watch the fireworks. We ended up on chairs but the grass felt nice for awhile. It was a fantastic fourth of July!

Clearly, things are going well here. We're having a great time. In the future, we're looking forward to the next family dinner, Aimee's shower, our family reunion, the baby classes, and then Aimee's wedding/wedding festivities, as well as Patrick finishing summer term and (in his ideal world) the baby being born after his finals and before the next/final semester starts. But we'll see what happens.