All about the XY

To say I was not excited to be pregnant a 4th time would be an understatement. Then I began looking through our picture files and finding pictures like this...



And this...




I started feeling more excited. I can't wait to see our kids faces when they meet their new brother. He is going to be so loved. I was thinking I can't believe we're adding another boy. I remember when I first got my job working with kids in the Fall of 1997. I was a preschool aide for 3-5 year olds and I helped with the after school program for 1st-5th graders. After working there just one year I said in a staff meeting "If I had to choose between having all boys or all girls, I would choose all boys." Now, here I am with 1 girl and 3 boys and I can't help but feel like someone was listening all those years ago. My boys are so charming and lovable I can't believe we're lucky enough to have another one (who better be just as lovable and charming and not some holy terror)! I really wonder what he'll look like since I don't think my boys look alike. No matter what I think he'll fit right in with these guys.

Our only issue with boys is their names! With Kai, the name was picked even before Mia was born and then once he arrived and I wanted to call him Sam instead, so I settled for Kai Samuel. Then Noah arrived or you could call him Tanner. Yeah, we still have not legally changed his name even though we decided when he was a month old that he was our Noah, not Tanner like we decided in the hospital. Now with our 3rd one we want to get this right with no regrets! Well we've settled on Eli for his first name, but the middle name is completely up in the air. I feel like throwing in the towel and not even adding a middle, but I don't want him to be mad at me later on for not giving him a middle. We KNEW if it had been a girl she would have had my middle name, Christine. So trying to figure something out for this boy has become frustrating. I want to use something from my side and was considering using my maiden name 'Billen' for his mn. However, I like the idea of them being able to use their mn as their first name if they choose later on and Billen isn't a name you could really use as a back up. We're thinking maybe Christian since it's close to Christine, but I don't really like how Christian Shong flows together. I don't know?! Why is naming so hard, boys in particular? This is one thing I would like to have nailed down so that we don't end up scrambling like we did with Noah. Sometimes I wish babies were like Cabbage Patch dolls and just came with birth certificates.