Why my husband is banned from naming our child

We had our 32 week midwife appointment yesterday night. Everything went great, plus the appointment was at 5:30 PM so that we could both make it and not have to take any time off of work. I love how flex she is!

Anyways, after the appointment I wanted to run to Sephora to pick up a new eyebrow pencil. We ended up spending a ridiculous amount of time in there testing perfumes. Once I showed Jerad how you spray them on the little tester sticks and can smell the coffee beans to "clear your nasal palate" he was obsessed. I think he would have tested every one there:) I found a new perfume to add to my wishlist and he found a great cologne so the smelling was not all in vain.

There was a HUGE line going down the street that ended up being for the grand opening of Chipotle. I'm talking Harry Potter/Star Wars midnight premier long. Maybe longer. I love me some Chipotle, but seriously... We had dinner at Baja Fresh. I had wanted to go to Cabo San Luis, but it happened to burn down the same day so... we improvised.

Before heading home we ran into Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up the wall hangings I had found online. Finally, all the living room walls will be finished! Going to BB&B with Jerad is like taking a kid to a toy store. He is obsessed with that place. I literally had to take his hand and drag him through the store because he wants to stop and look at and touch EVERYTHING. Maybe for the next date I plan we can just go there and I'll hand him money:) Its actually pretty cute, I love having a husband who likes to cook and cares about sheets/towels.

Last weekend when I was redecorating our hall bathroom he made sure to tell me that I needed to buy a fabric shower curtain liner like I did for the other bathroom. He thinks they're fancy. When I was picking out antique windows to hang in the living room I would text him pics and the measurements and he was all into deciding which would be best. The boy cares about interior design:) Which is good since I constantly want to change and update everything and move furniture (and walls). Its nice to have input, and be living with a handyman!

Back to last night... after managing to make it out of BB&B in barely over 30 minutes, we headed home. We got back at about 8:30 and thought about working on the nursery. Then I thought about vacuuming and washing the floors. Then we thought about snuggling and watching TV. Finally we looked at each other and said "do you just want to go to bed?" So we did. At 8:30pm. Because we are wildly exciting like that.

As we were laying in bed (and by bed I mean our ghetto mattress on the floor setup), we were talking about the day, and the weekend coming up, and the baby. I mentioned that I hate that we still haven't decided what to call the baby and I would have a lot easier time bonding with it if "it" had a name. And so launched the discussion of names. Again. We never manage to narrow down our list, just add more. We started thinking of themes. Cities: Austin, Denver, Dallas... Country singers: Cash, Jackson, Brooks, Sawyer, Clint. Presidents: Washinton, Lincoln, Lyndon.

Our criteria has been something like "not too popular, preferably a country name, sounds good with Hutchinson, sounds good with our girl name." So, basically our criteria knocks out most of the names that we do come up with. Two of our favorite names so far have sounded awful with "Hutchinson" since the names both also ended with "son." Which started me back on the *Should Have Changed YOUR Name bandwagon.

Then I made a big mistake. Let me preface by saying I LOVE John Wayne. Love em. Not his name, just him. I've seen every film available numerous times.

"Hey babe, what about names of John Wayne characters?"

Well.... Jerad has not seen every movie. But, he has seen True Grit. I'm sure you have too... remember Marshall Reuben J. 'Rooster' Cogburn? Well Jerad did. He immediately because obsessed with the name Rooster. At first I thought he was kidding. Nope. I asked what kind of middle name would go with ROOSTER. Apparently its "such a strong name, it doesn't even need a middle name."

Oi.

I'm just going to fill out the birth certificate myself.

*Did I ever write what we ended up doing with our names? After a lot of going back and forth and different ideas, for the sake of fairness we both changed our names. I added Hutchinson to mine, and he added Brown to his. So, both of our SS cards and driver's licenses have to wrap our names into 2 lines. Stephanie Renee Brown Hutchinson and Jerad Louis Brown Hutchinson. It worked out, our family will all have one name and I didn't have to give up mine. We merged. Like a marriage should. Plus I can still sign " S. Brown" which is nice and short:)