To all those that have been reading this series… I am truly sorry that I did not post this earlier.  Most of you already know this information, but there are a few that do not follow me on Facebook, so this is for all of you.

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On January 17th, 2011, our son was born.

Name: Gideon Samuel Wright

Weight: 8lbs 13oz.

I cannot tell you the joy I felt when I first heard his crying over the din of the operating room, or the sense of pure wonder when our doctor raised the child up and showed my wife and I this little miracle that we created together.  This little person that is the product of mine and her love for one another.

As I write this, I hear this little bit of life in the other room crying as my wife changes his diapers.  Something that has become our primary hobby these days, and probably will be for some time to come.

I would like to thank all of you, my readers, that have commented to me on this, both publicly and privately.  All those who have shared their wishes with me and personal experiences.

I can honestly say that the adventure is just beginning.

Part IV…. The Meaning of Life.

One of the things that keeps popping in my head through the process of getting ready to be a father is the humor in it all.  Trust me, there is humor.

You see, I was brought up in a family that dwelt on the British style of humor.  That comedy that borders on the ironic and dry, yet has the subtle flavor of dignified slap-stick humor.  Stuff that looks at life and, no matter what the situation, makes fun of it.

Throughout the stages of acceptance and understanding, I have constantly looked at each part with a detached “WWJCD” attitude.  That would stand for “What Would John Cleese Do?”  For those of you who are not familiar with the name, please follow this link, or watch “A Fish Called Wanda.”

I have always looked at life a little on the side of the jester.  There is entirely too much seriousness in life as it is to take it seriously on a full time basis.  Every now and again you need to take a moment… go to a nice quiet place and let the part of you out, a part that we all have, that is stark raving mad.  You can even share that part with friends, but I will not promise that the outcome will be what you might be hoping for.

I hope that I will get to share and impart some of this philosophy with the child.  I hope that as we grow together, we can entertain Naty with a re-enactment of “The Parot Sketch” or cause friends and family alike to groan with embarrassment by doing the “Silly Walk” in public together.

I would like to raise the child to understand, as I was raised, that there are many things that you need to be mature and serious about, but that there are many many more that you should look at and treat as a under-seasoned herring, and liberally sprinkle it with the salt of humor and parody.

I hope that by the time our child is 18, they can not hear the phrase “It’s just a waffer thin mint” or “…and now for something completely different.” without busting up laughing.  Who will be able to hear the word “Bugger” or “Buggery” and laugh when the person using it has no clue what they are saying.

Life IS too serious.  There ARE to few times, anymore, that allow us to sit back and laugh so hard that our sides hurt, and if the present administration is any sign, it is only going to get worse.  So I hope that our child picks up on my feelings and types of humor and they become part of his or her id.

While I strongly suspect that this type of humor from our child may drive my Mother-in-Law over the edge, causing her to speak in tongues and generally pop a fuse, I think that it would be grand and uniquely beneficial to the little one.  It may also make for several interesting Parent/Teacher meetings when the child starts going to school.

The time is getting closer, folks…  While I have written these at around the T-Minus 10 weeks mark, one never knows how life is to be played out.  If there is a change, and the child comes early, then I will let these articles run their course, but I will also send out a special announcement to let you all know what it is and when it was born.

Thank you for reading.

It’s strange how things work out.  How you plan something, working out what you think are important details, then when you are actually at the point where the thing you had hoped and planned for, actually comes to pass… nothing you planned actually survives first contact with reality.

This is like the old saying, “No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.”  Only in this case there is no enemy, just the realization of our dreams.

Names.

One of the things that Naty and I spoke about for years was names for any children we might have.  We wanted to have names that were not JUST names for the sake of a name.  We wanted strong, powerful or meaningful names that the child would grow into and might, through understanding the origin of their name, strive to live a live that would pay honor or respect to their namesake.

My name, Samuel, was given to me for two reasons.  First, it was the name of my father and second, for Samuel the Prophet.  I am sure that my mother considered other names, but to her, she saw the name Samuel or, in Hebrew, Shmu’el, for me.  Likewise, my brother was given the name Benjamin, The Patriarch.  While neither of us became anything special or worthy of the history of the names we were given, they were strong names none the less.

When we spoke of naming our child, we thought, ever so briefly, of naming a boy Samuel.  But then we considered the lineage.  My Name is Samuel; my father’s name was Samuel, and the same with my Grandfather and great-grandfather.  Needless to say, there was some repetition in the choice of names.  So we decided that subjecting our child to the doomed title of the 4^th was not an option.

One of the names that we thought of early for a boy was Ellery.  I have always liked that name, and I used to read the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine on a regular basis as well as watch the TV series of the same name, back a few years ago.  In spite of the popular and literary history of the name, it too has a good past and meaning.  So we were happy with that.

For girl’s names, there really was never a question about that.  It was always going to be one of two names.  It was going to be either Lydia Elizabeth or Daisy Faye, both names that paid homage to our families.  Lydia was for Naty’s mother and Elizabeth for my mother’s middle name.  Daisy was also to celebrate Naty’s mom by using the name she had as a child and Faye was for my Grandmother, on my mom’s side, who passed away when my mother was very young.

I am not sure why choosing a boy’s name was so much more difficult that picking a girl’s name, it just seemed like nothing worked until we found Ellery.

Reality sets in…

Everything you see written prior to this changed the moment we discovered that we were pregnant.  Prior to that point, it was all purely speculation, just thinking about what we would do if it actually happened.

We had been trying for some time, but since nothing was happening, we were getting to that point that most people get to at some point where we were just accepting that it would not happen to us. It was one of those things where we were not ready for our wish to actually be granted.  Suddenly the names that we had spent so much time thinking about and considering for their meaning and strength, we called into question.  “Did we really want to name a child this?” We asked ourselves, and then set about to rethink all our plans.

Looking through our past and through the various names we liked, we came up with our choices.  I will not post these here, the people who need to know what they are, know.  When they child is born and we know what sex it is, then we will name the child.  At that time, I will add a post welcoming the child into the world and sharing this new life with you. Let it be said for now, that the naming process… the selection of the names was not as easy as we thought it was.  There was a lot to consider, but I think we have some winners that will be strong names and will celebrate the family.