It's a...

BOY! And BOY, do I feel remiss for not posting sooner to introduce our new family member, who is now 2 weeks and 1 day old! Hopefully you can forgive me...but after the backlash we received for not posting on Facebook until several hours after he was born, it seems doubtful. Anyway, I certainly have been intending to make my re-entry into the blogging world, but things have been a wee bit busy at our house. What prompted me to do so today is that a friend of a friend has apparently been missing my posts, which makes me feel pretty dern good! People I don't even know actually read my stuff. Thanks!

Without further delay, please help me welcome to this wild & crazy world, ALASTAIR ELLSWORTH O'NEIL, born on Wednesday, December 30, 2009, at 7:49 a.m. He weighed a whopping 9 pounds 13 ounces and was 20 1/4 inches long. Though I've been living in a fog since, I do realize now would be an appropriate time to post a picture. Here he is the day he was born:

No doubt there is some wonder about his name. 'Tis a mouthful, hey? We truly struggled with names this time around, especially boy names. Up until 2 days before he was born, we only had one boy first name we could agree on, and neither one of us was crazy about it. So, Bill had the brilliant idea of scouring his e-mail address book for work, 5000-some names from all over the world. Our top two boy names therefore surfaced just a day or so before he arrived.

Alastair is the name of a consultant Bill's company contracts with, who he first met when they traveled together to South Korea six years ago. He liked his name immediately, but we never considered using it until now. And I'm so glad we did! It's Scottish, and for those who need to know, means "Man's defender..."

Ellsworth was my paternal grandfather's middle name, but it's what most people called him. I've wanted to use it as a middle name since we started having kids, but it never seemed to fit just right. This time it definitely did.

We've certainly gotten plenty of comments on the name, and a few people have even said they like it. Some of the responses from people who learned of his name by phone the day he was born: "Oh...Wow!" "That's a mouthful!" "Huh." Other comments since: "Oh...Wow!" "That's a mouthful!" "Huh." Don't get me wrong, there have been some positive reactions, too. A few people have said it sounds regal, important, it's a name to live up to, etc. People had to expect a unique name from us, and unique is what they got. By far the most noteworthy response so far was that of one of Bill's co-workers. He wasn't holding his opinion back at all when he said, "Oh no! Why would you do THAT to him?" To us his name is just like him -- perfect.