Baby Name Quest

Posted on September 11, 2009 by Andy

The quest has begun for a name for our new son. This is hard.

As with Brenden, we each have certain criteria to meet. For Jenny, Newbie’s first name can’t be extremely popular, can’t be the same as one of her exes’ names, and can’t remind her of any annoying people from her past. For me, his first name must have at least two syllables, can’t be “trendy”, can’t lend itself to easy shortening, and must be the name we actually call him. There are others, but you get the idea. It also has to sorta work with Brenden’s name since they’ll be said together often.

One interesting site we found is the Social Security Administration’s list of baby names for each year. You can break it down by state, year, or decade. I found that parents are much more creative today than they were in the late 70s when we were born. In 1976, for example, the most popular name was Jennifer with 3.78% of all female babies. In other words, on average every coed classroom of 25 kids had a roughly 50/50 chance of having a Jennifer. The top 10 girl names accounted for 16% of all female births. The top boy name was Michael, even more dominant at 4.1% of all male babies. The top 10 boy names accounted for an astounding 24% of all male births.

In 2008, new parents are much less likely to see another baby in the nursery with the same name as their own. The top girl name, Emma, only accounted for 0.9% of all female births. The top ten girl names only accounted for 7.7% of all little girls, compared to 16% in 1976. The top boy name, Jacob, was given to 1%. The top ten boy names accounted for 9.7% of all little boys, compared to 24% in 1976. I imagine part of this change comes from the increase in immigration. People from other countries who have babies here don’t necessarily gravitate toward the same names that 5th generation Americans prefer. Other reasons probably exist as well – a desire for their children to have a less common name, perhaps? Do you have any ideas?

Regardless of the causes, our children are less likely to have classmates who share the same name than we were. I remember having a Matt P. and a Matt W. in some of my classes. Jenny had three other classmates/friends who shared her name. My high school tennis team had two Andys. Even if we choose one of the more popular names for Newbie, he’ll still have a good chance of being the only one in his class.

Right now, my current favorite is Mel.

Newbie is a…

Posted on September 9, 2009 by Andy

BOY! Brenden will have a little brother. Although we would have been happy with a girl or a boy, having a pair of sons rather than daughters offers several potential benefits:

Same-sex siblings have made some world-class doubles teams. (the Williams Sisters, anyone? The Bryan Brothers?)
Our contribution to their weddings will be much lower (sorry, Lisa).
They could form an intimidating WWE tag team known as the Box Boys.
They will always (we hope!) look out for each other.
They can share at least some of the same clothes and toys.
If they like the same sports, they might be able to play on the same team.

Most likely they’ll be one year apart in school. Although some fighting is probably inevitable, we hope they’ll be good friends. Since we plan to stop with two, we’ll be able to refer to our kids as “the boys”, which has a nice ring to it. Jenny will be our queen bee. We’re going to have a good time.

No, we don’t have a name yet, although we’ve discussed several. Our next task is to prepare Newbie’s room, which might involve a trip to IKEA for furniture and Swedish meatballs.

For the latest sonogram pictures of Newbie, visit HIS page.

September Rants and Raves

Posted on September 7, 2009 by Andy

I’m in a good mood, so you get more raves than rants today. Here we go…

RAVE – USOpen.org

The official tournament site, USOpen.org, is excellent. On top of the usual information on scheduling, draws, and players, it also offers streaming broadcasts of the top matches. This feature came in very handy on Saturday night when The Tennis Channel held exclusive broadcast rights. Since AT&T doesn’t offer The Tennis Channel, we would have been out of luck. The site’s broadcast offers surprisingly high quality for an internet broadcast. I also heard a rumor that it can sneak through some workplace firewalls, but I don’t know anything about that from personal experience. Ahem…

RAVE – High School Football at Cowboys Stadium

On Labor Day, the new Cowboys Stadium is hosting a four-pack of high school football games. I always loved the way Texas Stadium’s officials opened their doors for high school playoff games. MacArthur, my alma mater, got to play there a few times back in the day. Mocking me with the mother of all conflicts, one of the Labor Day games at the new stadium features MacArthur versus Colleyville Heritage, probably Brenden and Newbie’s future high school. We won’t be there, but I’m thrilled for the players, coaches, and fans who get to experience these games in a world-class facility.

RANT – Obama-hating parents whining about Tuesday’s address

I like Obama. I don’t agree with him on every issue, but I like him overall. I also respect your right to dislike him if you so choose. But I am sick of hearing about parents who are whining about Obama’s Tuesday address to the nation’s children and young adults. The leader of the free world cares enough about your students to want to personally tell you about the importance of hard work and education. To encourage them to stay in school and do their best. To prove to them that a black man from a single-parent home can rise to the highest office in the land. From what I understand, his message is NOT political. Yet some parents, particularly down here, are complaining to the school administration and even threatening to keep their kids home on Tuesday. Bush delivered a similar message to students several years ago. Let’s use some common sense here, folks.

RAVE – Fall

Fall is possibly my favorite time of year. The temperature cools off enough to make outdoor activities pleasant, which will be VERY helpful with a toddler. Football and hockey return. At work, the weather is best overall, making my job easier. My grass quits growing. Leaves transform into all sorts of gorgeous colors. I can grill without having to sweat from the radiant heat. Several people in my family, including myself, celebrate birthdays. The electric bill drops significantly. SWA celebrates Halloween with the annual skit contest (anybody have a Dr. Evil/Mini-Me costume set?). I’ve had enough of the heat. Although I’m shocked at how quickly this year is passing, I’m very glad September has arrived and fall is drawing near.

Observations of a Mama – toddler edition

Posted on September 6, 2009 by Andy

I haven’t done one of these in a while, so I thought I’d catch all the Brenden fans up on his newest tricks.

1. He’s doing fairly well eating with a fork and spoon. Unfortunately, he hasn’t quite got the hang of which side is “up” on them both, so it’s a pretty messy process. But he’s a fan.
2. We found out this week he likes spicy stuff – chili, black beans and rice, etc – which is kind of nice since that is getting him closer to eating what we eat.
3. But he’s definitely still a picky toddler. What he likes to eat today will probably be spit out and cause a fit tomorrow. I don’t understand that.
4. After his last fit at Chili’s, I don’t know if we’ll be going out to eat as a family again anytime soon. Maybe when he starts college. It was a doozy.
5. Speaking of fits, they’re getting pretty bad. Throwing himself on the floor, wailing, rolling around like he’s possessed….they’re actually pretty funny if you’re in the right mood. I’ve started walking out of the room, which seems to end them quicker.
6. We try to go to a park at least once a day if the weather permits. I walk him around until he’s tired. We play on the slides and playground and then pick up pecans off the ground. He’s usually super dirty by the time we get home, but nice and worn out and ready for a nap.
7. His other favorite activity is to play in the water. The water hose is the best…..you can get everyone wet that way. We usually just strip him down and let him loose in the kiddy pool in the back yard.
8. His vocabulary hasn’t grown much – everything is a “B” word – “bah” pretty much covers it. He’ll say enough syllables of “bah” to get the point across. “Nutrigrain Bar” is really funny sounding coming out of a one year old. However, he understands pretty much everything you say to him, which is nice.
9. He also knows when you’ve told him to do something (or stop doing something, which is most of the time) and he’ll look at you, grin a big defiant grin, then keep doing what he wants. That’s not nice. Disciplinary times at the Box house!
10. My dad taught him to grunt and growl. He now sounds like a boy.
11. He’s walking pretty much all the time now – we let him walk to the car, into church, to the park, etc. The only problem is that he will not hold your hand at all. Mr. Independent wants to do it all by himself. I want to get one of those backpacks with a leash!
12. The boy has no fear. He’ll go down a slide by himself, no matter how tall. And if it happens to be a fast slide, that’s even better!

Have a good week, everyone!

Baylor Football

Posted on September 6, 2009 by Andy

I am happy.

This weekend kicks off the college football season. Although I always pull for Baylor, let’s be honest – we’re not exactly a football powerhouse. Since joining the Big 12, I think we’ve averaged 1 conference win per season. I remember one game while I was a student when we played Nebraska, then one of the best in the nation. The line against us was about 40. Nebraska still beat the line.

Last season we got (another) new coach and an exciting new quarterback named Robert Griffin III, a Vince Young-style scrambler who runs the 40 in 4.4. Our 4-8 record actually people excited about Baylor football again. This weekend our first game brought us to Winston-Salem, NC, to play the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (isn’t that the best mascot ever???), a respectable team who SMOKED us last year. But this year we emerged with a 24-21 victory, our first road victory since September 2007. No, we’re not buying any Rose Bowl tickets quite yet, but we have a winning record, and some people are even talking about a possible bowl game for us. Sic ’em, Bears!