Like a Lawn Chair....

I folded. For the past 7 years that I have been reproducing boys, Tony has been begging me, time after time to name our son... wait for it.... not yet.... almost going to tell you.... Ashley. [grunt] I'm sorry, but in my humble opinion, Ashley is a girl's name. When we found out Anthony was a boy, he said "you know the perfect name for a boy? Ashley!" I think the way I screwed up my face in distaste when he said that answered his question. Then we found out that Aidan was going to be a boy. "What should we name him?" I wondered aloud. Only to hear Tony's voice across the room answering, "you know, I think Ashley is a good choice." I just shook my head. No way was I naming my son Ashley. Can you imagine the ridicule? Even the nickname "Ash" wouldn't save him. Then I got pregnant with yet another boy. I threw every remaining boy name out on that table for our third son. Save for one. The omitted name did not go unnoticed. When I said "Adam? Aaron? Archer? August? What do you think?" He simply looked at me smugly and said "you know what I think." ARGH!

So here we are, trying for our fifth child, and if our track record gives us any indication of what the gender of this baby is going to be, then we are looking at boy number four. So, again we are trying to figure out what we will call our bouncing bundle of baby boy (should the Y chromosome decide to show its onery face again). If you haven't noticed, we give all of our children an "A" name... so that narrows the field considerably. I was throwing around names yesterday, and made a decision. A middle name decision. The baby's middle name will be Ronan. A little old, a little European, a little stolen from Stargate Atlantis (but my goodness is Jason Momoa dripping with hottness?!) But there it was. My choice, independent from my husband. I picked that name, and now we had to pick a first name to go with it. Archer. Right there, the perfect name, right?

Tony: "Archer? Archer Ronan? Double R? It sounds like one long name, Archeronan."

Me: "Crap. It kind of does."

Tony: "That means that Asher would sound the same way."

Me : inaudible grumbling

Tony: "You know what name would go great with Ronan, right?"

Me: "Shut up!"

But you know, he's actually right. Ashley goes very well with Ronan. I'm sort of okay with that. Now, I just have to figure out how to let all of his future teachers know that he will be going by "Ronan" before the treacherous first day of school. The last thing any boy wants to do is raise his hand during the first roll call when the teacher calls out the name Ashley. Or worse, go and sit in the desk bearing the "Ashely" name tag that the teacher has taken the liberty of scrolling hearts and butterflies on.

You know what would solve this problem? Having a girl.