Family Friday

For the first 4 years of Kari and my marriage, the question we've most received is "When are y'all having kids?" Most of the time we chose not to answer the question, because we didn't feel like our timeline was anyone else's business. Sometimes we chose to respond with a smart-alec answer like "After we finish perfecting our technique," which made the question exciting for us. Nothing like seeing little old church ladies blush when they realize what you're talking about.

That answer works really well for future grandparents, though my parents are hyper-sensitive about being over-involved in-laws and didn't ever ask. Kari's parents have their grandparent-hands full with a four year old and twin infants from Kari's sister. So, we didn't have to deal with that question too much from them. Just the church ladies.

Now that our timeline is out, and the answer is "August 28thish" we get to go back to all those church ladies and explain the our technique has been perfected. See... it's doubly fun!

But the new #1 question we keep being asked is about a name for the baby.

We're not telling.

Two reasons - First: we've been on the side of the discussion where someone tells us their proposed baby name and we immediately go into a conversation amongst ourself of who gets to be the one to tell a couple that "Elmo" is going to cause some poor little kid to spend an entire life in therapy. We try to hide our disgust, but it's really hard to not say, "please tell me you're kidding." Just in case we've come up with an Elmo-equivalent, we want you to be so enamored with how cute our baby is that you can't make a knee-jerk face when we tell you the name.

Second: Several of you out there are preggers right now and due before us. When you hear the name we've chosen for our little boy, you're going to recognize that it's so cute you just have to name your little boy the same thing (Kara). And then, all your friends are going to name their little boy the same thing before us. And by the time our little baby is born, he's going to be relegated to being the equivalent of "Chris F." the rest of his life because everyone in his class will have the same name. Either that, or he's going to be forced to adopt some nickname like "Squid," or "Fat Boy" or "Stinky" so people know who he is.

If you ask our name, we're going to tell you it's Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. And what's not to love about that? It's biblical, meaningful, and original. But when we tell you that, you're going to respond "What's his real name?" thus betraying that you're not able to handle such information without a reaction, proving point #1 and reinforcing our point.

You'll find out soon enough. Hold your horses.

3 comments:

lisa said...

yes, that's quite the popular question. and I agree completely with what you've said. Too bad I didn't think about it earlier because all our family and friends already know our prospective names. Thankfully, they were smart enough not to disagree with us.

at least not outloud. :)

We will find out on Tuesday whether we're having a boy or a girl. I'm uber excited.

After the baby is born, the questions will turn into -

- Are you getting enough sleep? (to which you always answer while yawning,'What do you think?')
- How was the delivery? (to which the answer is always, 'It's called labor for a reason.')
- How much did he weigh? (I like to answer this using the metric system. Or to add the density and buoyancy of the baby. These are important too and no one ever thinks to ask about those.)

so heads up.

The Kinley's said...

Then there's people like Travis and I who think the sincerest form of flattery is imitation, so if we like Masher's real name, then we'll just take it for our 2nd boy. :-)

Very valid reasons why not to share the name. You make a good point and you should be so lucky that so many people want to share in your excitement of a new baby by asking questions!! Of course you knew you'd get sass from me.

Kara said...

You are too funny! Just wait until you have your 2nd or 3rd...then people will come up to you at church and ask if you need to know what causes it, or if you need help stopping it!~ If I had a nickeel for every time I heard some advice about how to not get pregnant I could pay for the kids college! It is only our 3rd, I am not a baby factory or anything!

Also I wouldn't steal your name! We have chosen Cole Jackson for this one, which should go nicely with Caden Montgomery and Carter Andrew...(any of those is fine to use by the way!)

Also Caden's birthday is August 29th so that is a great day :) I am sure Kari is pretty much tired of being pregnant by now! Tell her to hang on this summer! We are praying for you two~!