Golden is his middle name.

So one of the first questions that people ask all of the time, after ascertaining that I really am going to have a baby and that he is a boy is, "Does he have a name yet." To which I always reply that I have not the slightest idea what to name my first born son. I remember having friends growing up who had already named all of their children--first, middle, and sometimes even last name. I was never like this, for the most part, and am still having a difficult time deciding on a suitable and appropriate and worthy name. As all of you with children know, this is a big responsibility--deciding how your child will be forever known. Deciding the name they will have throughout their entire life--meaning something that will sound cute when they are little and mature when they grow up (except if this kid is anything like his father, his body and his face will get older, but he will never really grow up). My Grandma Hill told me recently that no matter what I name my child, he will not like it at one point or another in his life, or better yet, he will hate it the entire length of his existence. Pressure. As a result, Adam and I have not yet picked a first name for our son. We talk about it sometimes and then we don't mention it for weeks on end. At 29 weeks, we have some time to spare, but that luxury is fleeting before our eyes, reciprocal to my belly increasing before our eyes. The fortunate thing in all of this is that baby boy already has a middle name--Golden. This means that our son will be named " ________ Golden Bradbury", and where there is an Adam, there is always a story. So, here it goes. Adam and I had been trying to start our family for some time, without much luck. In April, I went to the doctor for a check up and started talking to her about what we could do to have better luck. She informed me of the mathematical formula you can use to find out when your "days of opportunity" are. That night, I went home, found my calendar and did some math. The following Friday night, Adam and I went to a local Chinese Buffet in Corpus Christi for a quick and semi-warm dinner. "As we gazed across the table lovingly into each other's eyes, sparks flew, emotions ran high, and we just knew." STOP! And now back from my "Pride and Prejudice land" where Adam thinks I frequently dwell--if I remember correctly, it went a little more like this: Michelle: "Hey addie, I don't know if you want to do anything with this information, but this weekend would be a good time for us to try with the whole baby thing. Just thought you might want to know." To which Adam replied: "Cool. Let's eat; I'm hungry." Dinner went forward without much ado, and without much thought of the earlier conversation. When Adam was finishing his last few bites of General Tsao's chicken and I was savoring my last spoonfuls of chocolate pudding, our waitress brought our check/fortune cookies. I grabbed the closest cookie, opened it, read my fortune and said, "Oh my goodness. No way!" I sat and stared at the fortune for some time before sharing it with Adam, whose curiosity was obviously very peaked. When I finally read it out loud, the two of us just stared at each other. The thought of "holy cow" was running through both of our minds and streaming across both of our faces. The famed fortune read: "A golden egg of opportunity falls into your lap this month." Needless to say, that was the month--the weekend--that our baby first began. Too bad we did not play lotto with the numbers on the back too. We blew that egg, but are much more pleased with the golden egg that will soon join our family. "_______ Golden Bradbury" (our golden opportunity) So now you know the story of our Golden boy. We figure he will have fun explaining his name. We like the story and just wanted to share. So, If you have any suggestions of names that would sound good or cool or just really tough, feel free to let us know. We are open to ideas.

written 28 Jan 2007