This Boy

Well, I have no doubt that many of you have already read Liz's post, and if you haven't, you should. Needless to say, we are thrilled to finally know that we are having a baby boy. It looks like we will be buying lots of stuff with guitars on it. We are decorating the room in guitars, and I also plan on decorating the baby with many guitar clothes as well.

I am continuing to be amazed with the healthcare technology that we have in our modern world. Not only were we able to see that it was obviously a boy, we were able to see all four chambers of the heart as it beat. We were able to see the separate hemispheres of the brain. By far my favorite moment from Thursday was seeing the baby suck his thumb in utero. I honestly didn't know that they were able to do that at this stage. It was an event that made the fact that we will have a baby in about 5 months real to me.

I have noticed that, as nothing is physically happening to me, it is hard for my mind to understand that I am going to be a dad in a few short months. I kind of have to take certain events to make it more real, and this sonogram definitely did that for me. The baby really does look like a baby. We could see bones developing and the baby actually has a recognizable face, though right now, he kind of looks like Skeletor from He-Man, but evidently, that is normal at this point in time.

Liz pretty much talked about why we chose the name Carter, but it was very important to me that we did not choose a name that was at its peak in trendiness. I have only known a few other male Shelbys as I have grown up, and I suspect that Carter will know more people with his name, but at the same time, I didn't want my poor child to be one of three or four kids with the same name in his class. I can remember back to elementary school when the name Sara/Sarah was insanely popular. I believe in my first grade class, there were three girls with the name Sara/Sarah, and it got very confusing having to use last initials with each of them. Another important thing when picking a name was that the name had to sound serious, but have personality. Obviously, Liz and I think somewhat outside the box, so we wanted a name that we thought had personality, and "Carter" certainly fits the bill, but that the same time, it is a name and a spelling that one could take seriously. We had a friend tell us to put the words "Supreme Court Justice" in front of the name, and "Supreme Court Justice Carter Wilson" sounds like a name that could be taken seriously.

We are still searching for a middle name, but I would like it to be something that has meaning for Liz, including but not limited to family names. Obviously, since it is a boy, he will always have the last name Wilson, which is a part of my identity much more than Liz's. Anyway, we are still talking about it and will have that for you whenever it happens. (I am glad we have plenty of time.)

Needless to say, I am thrilled that I will have a son that I can teach to play music and that will be able to play music with me, if he so desires. It will also be nice to have a video game buddy, as Liz really doesn't like to play a lot of what I play. Sure, we have a ways to go before we can do all that, but I am excited that it is on the horizon, nonetheless.