The Infamous Name Game Part III

Somehow I think this is going to be an on going discussion up until the very end and I suppose I'm just going to have to be okay with it. My husband CJ, whom I love dearly and dare I even say in this day and age I REALLY like, does not see eye to eye with me on baby names. Nor I with him. With the exception of 2 or 3 names neither of us care for any suggestions the other has. Case in point, last night as I was heading to bed I threw out the suggestion "Lark" for a girl's name. I guess you could even say I did it on a bit of a lark (yep, pun totally intended), but nothing prepared me for the response I got from the other side of the house. Let's recap that conversation shall we?

Me: Hey Honey?

CJ: Yeah?

Me: What do you think about the name Lark?

CJ: What?!

Me: Lark.

CJ: Absolutely not! Lark is British for a joke. (He's an Aussie so
still very tied to British culture & language.)

Me: Um, okay, but it also means little bird.

CJ: First of all no kid of ours is going to be little. (He's 6'4- so he
has a point there). Secondly, we are not having a bird- we're having a
BABY. And lastly our child is NOT going to be a joke.

Me: (audible to myslef) Well, Mreow!

CJ: What?

Me: Nothing Honey. Okay- I guess Lark is out.

Then I brushed my teeth got in bed and crashed- lamenting the fact that another name I  thought was cool and unique was kabashed! A shame too because the only Lark I know of is Lark Voorhies- aka Lisa Turtle aka the only Black girl from "Saved by the Bell." She's cute, seems smart, successful and put together. 

It seems the only questionable thing she's done was be engaged to comedian Martin Lawrence. That was a WTF moment, but c'mon who hasn't had one of those?

My Mom...and The Baby "Bean"

From the moment CJ and I found out we were pregnant we were excited. In all honestly, he was a little more excited than me. But I kind of think that's normal. I had A LOT to take in- not just that my life would be changing FOREVER, but so would my body over the next better part of a year. Of course we told my parents first. We e-mailed our family overseas and then kept the secret to ourselves as best we could for the first few months. We diligently began reading everything we could about our baby-to-come and it's development. Excuse me, I mean his or her development. My mother HATES when we call the baby "it". But again, honest moment here- that's what it (he/she) was to me the first several weeks. I mean you don't really look any different and aside from being tired and nauseous you don't feel that different. Nice or not, I compare the first few months of pregnancy to having a really bad cold or the flu- just sans the sniffles. But I digress, so back to my mother. 
My Mom is one of the coolest women you could ever hope to meet, but she does carry herself in a certain manner. I like to liken her to Claire Huxtuble  which is very fitting as growing up my life was JUST like the Cosby Show. (Sometimes I wondered if they had hidden cameras in our home and then they just took what they saw to make episodes.) Like Claire, my mother is the consummate lady, extremely intelligent, always professional, but still knows how to laugh and have fun. However, she does have her "snob moments". Meaning if something or someone isn't too her liking she'll find a way to convey that so that everyone regardless of their IQ gets the message.
Sometimes it's a verbal condemnation other times it can just be a look. She was ALWAYS good with looks- that's why I didn't get spanked in public as a child because she didn't have to. Her look said/did it all. And I knew if I kept up whatever I was doing that was inappropriate or embarrassing to her I'd be in more trouble than I bargained for when I got home. 
As, my husband and I were following the growth of our little one on all these mommy-to-be sites from What to Expect When You're Expecting to The Bump to Babble.com we found that they give you weekly fetal updates about your baby's development. When it starts to grow ears, or fingernails or when the liver and spleen start to develop- it's really fascinating even if you're not having a kid. But they also do something really cute on these sites to better help you comprehend how big, or rather little, your baby is- they compare your baby to food. 

So in your first couple of weeks it's the size of a pea, then a blueberry, then a bean, then a plum, then a peach...then a lemon...an orange- you're following me. Well, the name that stuck for us was Bean. Don't ask me why, but it did. So my husband to this day will rub my belly which really isn't even showing yet ('cause it's my first pregnancy) and he calls the baby "The Bean". He's even created terminology around it. For example when I'm on stage and I mixed a joke up or forget the punch line- he's like, "I saw you get "beaned" up there." Or when I had my awful bouts of nausea, he'd rub my back and say sympathetically, "I'm sorry you're getting 'beaned' so badly." It's become terminology around our house and kind of a cute nickname for a child we clearly can't decide on name for yet (see The Infamous Name Game Part I or The Infamous Name Game Part Deux). 

Well, during a phone conversation while I was relaying to my mom how excited CJ was about becoming a father I happened to mention that our pet name for the baby was "The Bean". You would have thought I called the kid Alouicious! She didn't even find it even mildly amusing. In fact, she was rather indignant when she replied back, "That IS NOT a bean you're carrying- that is MY ANGEL!!!" I realize I could argue and have a never-ending mother/daughter fight about this. But I will concede. I suppose for someone who's in her mid-sixties who's friends are ALL grandmas by now, some several times over, this is HER ANGEL. So CJ and I will just call it "The Bean" in the privacy of our own home.

The Infamous Name Game: Part Deux

This whole picking out a name for our baby is steadily becoming more complicated for me and my husband. I mean, it's not like we haven't thought or fantasized about what we would name our kids when we were younger. Hell, when I was bored in class that was one of my favorite past times- writing out first and middle names that would sound great together. But that was 7th grade me and I didn't have a husband to consult at the time. Our goal is to find a name that's unique and different but not "made up" or too weird. We'd love a name that's all that and cool AND a name that doesn't remind us of someone from our past that we wished was never born. (Something harder to find the older we get 'cause we've met SO many bloody people by now.) 
I’m keeping my options open for girls names as well, but I’ve pretty much decided yes, this early on in my pregnancy, when my child is barely the size of a lemon, that it’s a boy. So we, CJ and I, need to come up with boy names that we both like. That right there is problemo numero uno. For the life of us we cannot come up with names that we both dig. CJ’s all-time favorite name at this point in time is Diego followed by 

Bentley in a close second. Let me address my issue with Diego first. Number one, it will forever be overshadowed by Dora the Explorer’s leech of a cousin who is riding her coat tails to fame and fortune. My darling husband recognizes this and it irks him to no end, but he actually has a decent reason for liking the name. Back in the day when he would ruminate over having a child of his own and what he would name it. He thought that many people name their kids after their favorite places.  Well, suffice to say one of his favorite places on Earth is San Diego- hence Diego. (FYI- I can’t stand it- the name, not the city.) Let's also not ignore the fact that neither of us are of Mexican or Latino heritage. He's White I'm Black- sure our kid may come out looking Hispanic, but that'll just really confuse people. I prefer something a little more modern like Jax or Jackson. When I tell that to most people they concur. Until I reveal why my husband detests that name. Firstly, he thinks it’s overused. Secondly, my spouse, who’s last name our child will get is Russell.  He believes that no matter how much we stress that our son's name is Jax or Jackson it will inevitably get changed by people who don't give a damn and he will be called Jack. Meaning, yes, we could create our very own real life Jack Russell. (Maybe it’s cruel- but there's part of me that also thinks it’s adorable- sue me). Either way it’s apparently not going to happen under CJ’s watch. Plus, I just found out that it’s one of the top ten most hated names for boys right now. But I don’t feel bad because CJ’s 2^nd runner up for a name is on that list too- Bentley. Who names their kid Bentley?