It's (going to be) a Boy!

This is going to be our fourth child. And since it's our fourth, there are certain steps in this 9 month process that I have come to expect and anticipate... they go something like this:

• Kelly will tell me she's pregnant (usually while giggling)
• I'll enter into a brief panic
• We'll go to the doctor and the doctor will tell Kelly a bunch of stuff
• The only thing I know about this initial doctor visit is that they give me a big bill to pay
• My adorable (and, when it comes to buying something for herself, frustratingly frugal) wife will try to wear old stretched out maternity clothes and refuse to buy anything new
• I will force Kelly to buy new maternity clothes
• I will join Kelly at the Dr's again, this time to find out the sex of the baby
• Kelly will cry at the site of the ultrasound
• I'll sit there puzzled and answer "you sure?"... when the Dr. says "this is the head" or "this is an arm"
• Kelly will enter the final months of pregnancy...
• and then, finally, the baby will come and the real work begins

Well, anyway, today.. we hit that stage of the process where we found out the sex of the baby. As is her custom, Kelly cried her eyes out at the site of our little guy... which, for me, is sweet to see the immense love she has for the baby that she is carrying. I, on the other hand, am an emotionless shell of a man that has to feel, touch, and wrestle with my baby before I can truly bond with him.

At any rate, the results are in and it's going to be a boy! Since I refused to discuss names until I knew the sex (other than wanting Winnie Cooper if it was a girl -- a battle I would have lost horribly, by the way), we now have to do the work of finding a good boy name. This is trickier than you might think... because I want a name that means something. For example... our first three:

• Reagan: She was, naturally, named after the character played by Linda Blair in the Exorcist (you know... the spinning, puking head). OK... so... maybe not... Reagan was named after Ronaldus Magnus... The Great Communicator... that's right... Ronald Reagan.
• Luke: Named after someone the ladies loved.... someone that could shoot a bow and arrow to get out of trouble... someone who refused to bow to the unjust demands of "johnny law"... someone who refused to open his car door to enter it.... that's right... Luke Duke. OK, not so much. His name was influenced by the fact that we were studying the gospel of Luke at church during that time (but that's not nearly as good of a story as 'Luke Duke').
• Will: No jokes here.... Will's first name is after Kelly's father and his middle name (Charles) is after my father. Those are two men who Kelly and I are the utmost respect for and it was an honor to be able to name him that (thankfully, neither was named Wilbur.... or Sally, for that matter).

OK... so, you see, we have kind of a standard set. Kelly was looking through baby names this evening and ruled out the following names: Nuno, Shaka, Doggie (a real Scottish-origin name), Chineze (ironically enough, an African name), Dong-Yul (no one... I repeat.. no one... should name their kid 'dong'... in fact, this name literally translates to Christmas Weener... and that's just not cool to name your kid Christmas Weener... you know?), Ding Bang, Boy (a bit impersonal, no? an actual name of English origin), Duck Young, Eachthighern (huh?) and Ed (just because)....

Other than that.... the sky is the limit. Please forward me your wonderful and meaningful baby boy names ... I'm all ears.