It's a Girl!

I think most of you have already heard this news, but thought I should add the announcement to the blog just to be safe. I would've loved having a boy as well, but am super-excited that Maisie will have a sister so close in age...and hoping that they will end up great friends and play-mates.

Now I have started my name-selection process (which Ryan, of course, laughs at...and you might also when you hear some of the details): (1) I skim through the girls name lists from A to Z, jotting down the names that I like; (2) then in a nice Excel worksheet, I add in for each name its ranking in 2008, its meaning, and possible nicknames; (3) I filter based on name ranking / popularity -- basically removing any name from the list which falls in the top 50 (and preferring to keep out any of the top 100); (4) next filter is based on name meaning -- if it doesn't have a good or strong meaning, out it goes! For example, I think the name Mallory is a pretty name but it means "unlucky", so out it would go.

And the (5) step is my Ryan filter...I print out the remaining names and show to him, and well you can guess what happens next. He actually has only crossed off a couple so far (and all w/ my agreement that they should go), so left with 6 names overall. Now we'll likely just ponder some of the names over the coming days or weeks, crossing off some here and there until we're left with our favorite.

Or at least hopefully that is how the process concludes! If all else fails and we cannot seem to narrow it down from two or three, my momil Jude suggested putting the names on a few different items and setting in front of Maisie...and then whichever one she picked, that would be her baby sister's name. :) But doubting it will come to that, I figure it will be like with the first time and one name will really resound with both me & Ryan. And don't worry, we will share once we have the one name figured out.