These days everyone is asking me if we have a name picked out for this baby girl in my belly.  The answer is no, if I did I think the world would know since I can’t keep my mouth shut about anything, as you may have noticed.  We have some ideas floating around, but in this house it ain’t so easy to name a baby.  I am always so curious when I hear kids’ names where they come from and why they were blessed with their particular identifier.  I love getting to know all my bloggin’ mommy friends so I thought I would put together a little quiz meme to find out more about your naming strategies.

Here is the Lowdown on this Name Game:  Names are important.  Your kids’ names were chosen for a particular reason and they mean a lot to you so this would be a great story to share!  If you don’t share your kids’ names on your blog you can just tell us where you got the catchy nickname for your little ones or just go through 1-10 and amuse us with your naming antics!  No problemo!  Copy the image above to use on your blog.   Go ahead and answer the questions and then pass this Name Game and the simple instructions on to 5 other bloggy moms or dads who you think might want to share their story!  Make sure to let me know so I can follow the Name Game!

p.s. If I don’t know you are here I can’t tag you or give you the comment love so feel free to take this meme and let me know so I can see your story too!

I can’t wait to get to know you all better!

1.  Do you have any cultural or religious naming traditions?

Oh boy.  In a word, yes.  I am a Christian of Swedish descent and my husband is a Jew of Dutch descent.  I had to give up my tradition for his in this case.  These interfaith marriages are hard work baby, let me tell you!  In Sweden it was customary to give first born children a name which reflected both their father and mother.  This was not going to work for us.  You see, Ashkenazi Jews (descending from Germany or Eastern Europe) name babies after deceased relatives but never after living relatives.  They have a belief, or superstition, that the Angel of Death might be easily confused and come for your new baby instead of the older relative you were honoring.  Jews also just don’t really like, for the most part, the idea of naming sons after fathers and having Ross I, Ross II, Ross III.  I am sort of there because it just seems confusing!  Ross has a big and close family. This took a LOT of names of the table – many names that I love.

Also, because of the Judaism our kids needed Secular and Hebrew names and they have a baby naming  (for girls) or Bris (for boys) to give the child this Hebrew name at 8 days old.  Yes, this is an event when you have just birthed a baby with guests and food and everything.  Whew – a lot of thinking and planning!  Thank God for the Jewish Deli here in town!  At some point I will post on how we planned both our interfaith wedding and 2 interfaith baby ceremonies in case any of you, like me, are combining and choosing traditions!

2.  Did you or your partner come to the marriage with pre-selected names?

Yes.  I knew what I would name my first daughter since I was in high school.  The Angel or Death would have had to take my baby over my dead body for this one if someone else had already used it.  Thank God Ross liked it.

3.  Did you consider the sound of the first and middle and last names together? Did this make any sad eliminations?

Yes.  I am easily disturbed if things don’t sound good so I repeat my baby names over and over like a crazy person.  My last name starts with a V and has 4 syllables so it is a real pain in the ass to find names that work!  This go around we may have to eliminate my top name contender unless I can find the perfect one syllable middle name that my husband does not veto.

4.  Do you have veto powers?

Yes, as stated above.  However, this did not apply to the name I had pre-selected.  Again, over my dead body.

5.  Did the baby naming cause arguments?

At a minimum heated discussion.  This time around is the worst.  Does he not hear what he is suggesting?  Ugh!

6.  Do you think it is easier to name boys or girls?

Girls.  Hands down.   I seriously thought my baby boy might come home from the hospital without a name.

7.  Did you eliminate names because of people from your past or present who you don’t like or because a certain image comes to mind.

Yes.  No names, of course, but yes!

8.  Did you / would you survey your children to get their thoughts on the name?

Me, no.  Ross, yes.  I have had to explain why we are not naming our daughter princess or Ruby (because it rhymes with boobie) or Cinderella or Annie (my middle name is Anne – that darn Angel of Death again).

9.  Did you tell people the name or possibler names before the baby was born or were they “in the vault”?

We told people with the first 2 kids but I am not sure with this one.  One of the names we like is kind of funky and I am under the impression that if we wait until the baby has the actual name and is born our lovely friends and family will be less likely to comment.

10.  Did you use baby name books?

Yes!  I have to know what names mean and I love naming traditions and meanings etc.  I may keep my books after I am done birthing babies just so I can look up what other people’s names mean.  Besides the standard name books with a majillion names alphabetically listed my favorite naming book is Beyond Jennifer & Jason, Madison & Montana:  What to Name Your Baby Now.  It is funny and groups all the names into categories like sturdy or feminine or Exotic.  It also has sections on one and two syllable names – which I always flip through!

Drumroll Please…What did you name your kids and why? See – if you don’t share your names it’s okay you can still share your crazy story with 1-10!

Our first Baby Girl

Sophia was my forever name.  I wish I was named Sophia.  In Hebrew this name is Bina, meaning wisdom, understanding, insight and prudence.   From the ceremony:  She was given this name not only for its beauty but because we believe that knowledge is the key to so many doors in this world.  Knowledge and understanding open our heads and our hearts to God and to people around the world. However different they are from us.  We gave our daughter this name because we value these qualities so highly.

Elise is a beautiful name and reminds me of soft and wonderful things like Edelweiss, one of my favorite songs – seriously.  This is also the place where we chose to honor Sophia’s great grandmother, Elizabeth “Billie” Cutler.  She sewed clothing for Andy Warhol.  Elise is a variant of the name Elizabeth.  We hope that she can have the kind of artistry and creativity that both her grandmother (who is an artist) and her great grandmother were blessed with.  From the ceremony ELISHEVA is the Hebrew from of this name, meaning God is My Oath, Gods Promise, and Consecrated to God.  As an interfaith couple it is important that this name reminds us that Sophia is with us because of God’s great works and that despite our many struggles Sophia and both sides of her family and her future siblings are all part of God’s promise and are all consecrated to him as our true father.

Our First Baby Boy

Miles is just a rockin’ name and come on Mr. Miles Davis is the King of Cool!  We loved this name and found out that it means both soldier from the old German and merciful in Latin.  GIDEON is from the Hebrew, meaning mighty warrior and feller of trees.  From the ceremony: We chose this name to honor my brother Graham, a warrior himself, who volunteered for the Army after high school and fought in Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq and Korea to protect and create freedom for others.  We also wanted to honor Ross’ family heritage and remember the Jewish people, who battled for so long and lost so many while fighting to keep their faith through the very worst of times.  We hope that Miles will grow to be a strong man who is willing to fight for what he believes in as Gideon did for God when he was called on to free the people of Israel and condemn their worship of idols.  We hope that our son will fight to make this world a better place.

Henry is a strong name for a boy and it should be – it mean home ruler! We just loved this name.  Unfortunately the Hebrew equivalent for Henry is not one I liked so we chose ASHER for his Hebrew middle name, meaning blessed or fortunate.  This is what we said at the ceremony.  We could not be more blessed to have this new little boy in our lives or consider ourselves more fortunate to have two happy and healthy children and a wealth of friends and family to share our joy.  At the same time, we hope that Miles Henry, our Gideon Asher, will be blessed wherever he is, through all his comings and goings, for all the days of his life.

Passing on the Name Game – Tag!

I am passing on this Name Game to some fabulous mommies!

Speaking From the Crib:  Happy Birthday Ann Claire! This mommy is super funny and has two little names to tell us about.  She is great!  And p.s.  I could not use the names Ann or Claire!  I love them both though!

Chase and More!: Mer has 2 kids, Trent and Chase.  Trent is the awesome bog brother.  Chase is 6 months old now and has Down Syndrome.  Mer is the awesome mommy blogger who writes about her family and her experiences raising baby Chase – who is as cute as a button!

Adventures in Babywearing:  Steph is awesome and has great stories on her family’s adventures and advice on baby wearing, which I am a HUGE fan of.  Shout out her to Ergo Baby and Hotsling.  She is also a stellar baby namer – with 3 boys named Noah, Carter and Grayson and a baby girl named Ivy LaRue.  Noah was one of our almost names for Miles and Ivy – umm let’s just say I have this on a short list of names that I will use if we can change our last name.  Come on Steph – tell us the story!

Theta Mom: Heather does not share the name but I bet she has a great story and she is a great bloggy friend so check her out!

OMG Pregnant: I love reading this blog and the baby is due next month.  Wonder what kind of conversations they are having?  I am sure it will be funny even if we get no name because the Mr. and Mrs. over there are a stitch!

Absolutely Bananas:  Jen is great and truly funny and sometimes has the same luck as me which is not much.  HaHa.  Check her out and giggle with her family of J’s.  Jen, Jay and CJ!

Here’s to our names and those of our kids and learning more about each other!

Y0nca at Yonca is Cooking has tagged me in a fun picture tag!  It is much easier than the meme (although you won’t get as much dirt on me this way).

Simple Rules:

• Open your first photo folder (I took this to mean oldest digital pictures folder).
• Scroll down to the 10th photo.
• Post that photo and story on your blog.
• Tag five others (or more) friends to do the same

Here is the aforementioned picture of a slightly drunk Brittany (me) and her boyfriend of less than 1 year Ross, who is now her husband.  It actually was not a digital picture but was in my “first” folder because I scanned a bunch of pictures for my mom after Ross and I got engaged for the engagement party she threw for us at her house.  It was a wonderful jolt to look at this “first folder” because it is a whole folder of pics leading up to Ross and my engagement and wedding.

Bahamas Spring Break 1998

This is a picture of my only “real” spring break.  It was my sophomore year in college.  All of the other years I worked, but this year my boyfriend (hee hee) and a bunch of our friends decided to rent a bunch of sailboats in Miami and sail to the Bahamas, stopping at little islands but always sleeping on the boat.   If you think this sounds cheap, it was.  That is how I could afford to go.  This is a picture of me, slightly drunk and very in love.  Still new in love.  That means, if you can’t tell from my smile, that I was still in complete lust as well.  It is also a picture of Ross’ last spring break and the longest vacation he had (tied with our honeymoon) until he lost his job in April and had 3 months off.  It is a picture of me, sunburnt, which never happens except that my SPF 50 combined with a lot of alcohol could not beat the sun in the middle of the ocean.  It is a picture on a little tiny island (around other little islands) with no name that I can remember that only has a little shack restaurant with fabulous food and a bunch of chickens and a main house where the owners live.  You take your dinghy from the sailboat to the shore.  It was a great meal, it was a great night.  And it turns out that more than 10 years later I am still in love (and lust) with this man.  He is my heart and the father of my beautiful children and if I could, I would love to have a few glasses of wine with him tonight, remembering these beautiful days and planning our next trip to the beach.

I am tagging…

1.  Amy from Amy Musings.  Amy is funny and sarcastic and just an all around hoot to read!

2.  Existential Waitress.  Mommy of 2 cuties from Las Vegas baby!  Hoping I can befriend her and hang out with her the next time my husband feels the urge to play craps into the middle of the night and then wake up to breakfast and blackjack.

3.  Metropolitan Mama.  Great blog and great posts up right now on eco-friendly fashion and nursing fashion in honor of the end of World Breastfeeding week.  She’s in sunny Arizona so I will be eagerly befriending her too!

4.  Pink Green Chick – Another fab eco-friendly mama with a giveaway right now for an AWESOME organic bug spray Brittanie’s Thyme.  Thinking about the mosquito bite on my eye right now, I really need this!  She does her posts on all things eco-friendly, but maybe she can dig out a pic for us.  If not – enter the giveaway!

5.  Gina at Signals from the Mothership.   Gina is so cute and funny and crafty and I just found her so I thought I would share her with you.  I love to share you know!

Thanks for the memories.  TAG.  You’re It!

First of all, dear readers, I am an idiot.  Most of you already knew this, but I thought I would alert the newbies over here.  I was Meme’d by the lovely Metropolitan Mum and I had only heard the term yesterday.  I had to look it up.  I am a Wikipedia addict.  I thought it sounded cool.  Me and more me!  Bad joke.  It actually looked scary.  Look at all the links in one definition.

A meme (pronounced /ˈmiːm/, rhyming with “cream”^[1]) is a postulated unit or element of cultural ideas, symbols or practices, and is transmitted from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena. (The etymology of the term relates to the Greek word mimema for “something imitated”.)^[2] Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes, in that they self-replicate and respond to selective pressures.^[3] Memeticists have not empirically proven the existence of discrete memes or their proposed mechanism, and memes (as distinct from ideas or cultural phenomena) do not form part of the consensus of mainstream social sciences.

You can find the whole article here.

Thankfully for me, this Meme thing for a blog is much simpler and more fun.    It is funny too – it was not originally the “I Blame Tara Meme” but Tara at Sticky Fingers sent it to Blogger Dad who named it just that.  Both these peeps are pretty darn funny and you should check them out.  Crap, I should probably give some of the awards I have building up (Sorry gals I know it is taking awhile) to them!

Without Further Ado (250 words of junk before I even start – wow!) here is my first Meme!

1. Who is the hottest Movie Star? Well, I don’t get to the movies much with kids.  It just seems like a waste to blow $10 bucks or more and hour on a sitter and then blow a million buck on the movie and candy and then not get to talk to grownups at all.  Still, I do appreciate a good lookin’ man but I am partial to style too so I am really going to have to go with Johnny Depp.  I have loved Johnny since I was a pre-teen and he was in 21 Jump Street.  Really.  I think his funky style and his love of the strange and mostly his love of kids and stories is right sexy man!  Funny enough, he is also my husband’s favorite actor.    If Ross had a man crush I know it would be him.  (Phew -that one was easy!)

2. Apart from your house and car, what is the most expensive item you have ever bought? Well I think it would be our gorgeous leather Restoration Hardware couches.  We wanted them for so long and we finally got them.  Then the dog really roughed ‘em up.  That was not part of the plan.  They are now not worth what we paid.  But we still love them.  And the dog.

3. What is you most treasured Memory? From having blog hopped this meme a little bit this is not original at all but I have to say my wedding day for both real and completely superficial reasons.  First for the ridiculous part.  I think my dress was drop-dead gorgeous and if it weren’t for those couches above this would be the next most expensive thing followed closely by the computer.  I will probably not have enough money to ever spend that on an item of clothing.   To couple this with a real hair and makeup artist and a fabulous party where everybody got to actually see me all prettied up – well this was a heady experience.  Now more than ever.  I have a 1 year old and a 2 year old.  A shower these days is not an everyday occurrence.  So you see – for my next big party I am think I am going to get all dolled up again just to see if I can still look hot!

Besides the dress and the fantastic party my whole family was at my wedding.  Despite my parent’s very rocky marriage, I was glad that both Ross and I were able to have our parents there without the drama of girlfriends or step parents and all that stuff.  This was one of the last family events they would attend before their divorce.  The actual last time was when my brother returned from Iraq for the 1st time, 2 weeks after my wedding day.  His return was delayed by 1 month, and his platoon leader made absolutely sure that while he did not make it home, a gorgeous letter that he wrote to Ross and I did.  I will post this later for those of you who enjoy tear jerkers.

Finally, I married the love of my life after waiting 6 year for him to propose.  I was so ready to be with him and I still sometimes am amazed that we made it to that day.  We are an interfaith couple who share many things but also disagree on a lot.  We overcame a lot from our families to get married and now, with my awesome husband, I have 2 beautiful children.  Without that day, this could not have happened.   (Okay we know it could have but it would not have been as joyful if we were not married, let me just tell you.

4. What was the best gift you ever received as a child? Well, it was sort of a gift and we sort of earned it.  My brother and I did not eat candy for a year to get this giant G.I. Joe Battle Ship.  It was awesome.  Maybe I remember it so well because it was so damn hard to get!

5. What is the biggest mistake you have ever made? There are so many mistakes.  The one that comes to mind though did not seem huge at the time.  We were having a family argument at Christmas as usual and someone suggested that we have a Festivus (please say you watch Seinfeld) style “Airing of the Grievance’s.”  I said a lot of things that were more hurtful than I meant to my parents and my siblings and they did the same.  The grievances were aired, but there were dents left on us all that are still to be repaired.  You cannot take back words once they are said.  You can only apologize for them and then the wounds still take time to heal.  I am sorry that I caused any harm to people I love so much.  Festivus did not turn out to be funny.

6. 4 words to describe yourself:  Creative, Industrious, Nerdy and Short.  Yes, very short.

7. What was your highlight or low light of 2008? Easy.  Highlight was the birth of Miles Henry.  Low was the loss of Ross’ job.

First Family Pic

8. Favorite Film? It is either Gone with the Wind or the long box set Pride and Prejudice.   I already said I was nerdy okay.  It might even be The Sound of Music.  I like ‘em old and I like ‘em long.

9.  Tell me one thing I don’t know about you.  I wanted to be a Broadway musical star.  I took voice and dance my whole life and then I taught voice and dance and Theater to kids and then I thought about how much I wanted a family and then I decided to go to school and pursue theater later.  It’s hard to try and make it and have a normal life.  But community  theater you just wait!  For now I spend my whole days belting out musicals in my house.

10.  If you were a comic book / strip or cartoon character, who would you be? Betty Boop.  She is SO cute and sassy baby!  And I like to say boop oop a doop.

Oh my gosh I am actually done!  Okay I am now Memeing:

Meg’s a Mommy – here’s something to blog about babe!

Land of Mama Grits

Perfectly Happy Mum

Raising Normal Kids

That’s All Folks.  This took forever!  But all’s fun in blogging!