Playing the name game is part of being a mother. You and the father are responsible for coming up with the perfect name for your child to bare for the rest of his or her life. Talk about pressure.
When I was a little girl, I had fun coming up with names for my dolls. There was Mary (my mom's name), Friend (she was her friend, of course), Whoopsie (inspired by the sound she made when you squeezed her belly, causing her pigtails to go up and down), Ugly Baby (actually my mom came up with that one due to her appearance after being toted around everywhere by her hair) and a long line of others that would take forever to mention.Now, I didn't rename my Cabbage Patch Kids, as I felt it was important to keep their birth names (remember how they all came with birth certificates). One of them was Jay Cameron, a name I had hoped to one day pass on to a real child of my own.
As you all know, I do have a son (he picked out these flowers for me), but his name is not Jay Cameron. By the time I got pregnant with him, the name was already partially taken by my sister's son, Cameron (it suits him), so I opted for Jacob instead (well, I still ended up with a "J" name).
My hubby and I selected Jacob's name before he was conceived, and in the meantime, his name became No. 1 on the list of boy's names. It has managed to stay there ever since.As for baby No. 2, we had decided to go for something less popular like Riley for a boy or Chloe for a girl. We are having a girl this time, so Riley was out of the running (although it is more commonly a girl's name). We also had to rethink Chloe, since a childhood friend of mine had already given that name to her little girl.
I announced in a prior post that the baby's name will be Hayden, which is seldom associated with a girl. In fact, I was under the impression that she would be the first female Hayden to be seen at the pediatrician's office where I work. To my surprise, this probably won't be the case. So much for being different.
A lot of thought goes into a name, and I'm sure my parents took the decision very seriously when naming me. From what I understand, my dad picked Shannon after hearing a song by the same name. The funny thing is that we later discovered it was about a dog. At least there's an entertaining story behind it.
That's what I love so much about my family; I've enjoyed making memories with them and laughing as we retell the tales. Thanks mom, for bringing me into this world and surrounding me with such a wonderful group of people. Happy Mother's Day :-)
