Who wants to be a VIP?

So I have joined the ranks of the baby blog, sort of... we have created a new blog for all things Tennyson related. I am going to jump on the bandwagon and keep it limited to those we know however...so if you'd like to be a witness to Mark's parenting skills, leave a comment with your email and we will make sure you get a front row seat to watch our little T grow up to realize her parents are great, big nerds.

Yes Mom and Dad that means you will have to leave a comment or I won't add you to the invited bloggers and you'll never get to see pictures of your granddaughter!! mwah hahaha!

**Just to calm fears of Mark and I abandoning our random rants and offenses - this blog will keep going strong; it will just be T's blog that we have private**

What Percent Are You?

So with all this baby stuff going on, the blog has been neglected the past couple of weeks... I can't really say I have had any desire to blog to be honest. Given our stance that this won't become a shrine to our little Tennyson, and the fact that no sleep equals brain mush - the blog ideas have shriveled up. I could tell everyone about the awesomeness of early morning/late night tv, but then my blog would be full of lies, and we all know I am not a good liar. So let me say a quick shout out to my DVR and the shows that keep me company at any given hour of the day or night. (Thank you A&E for getting me addicted to Intervention, and for giving me another season of The Two Coreys.)

Well, today my brain may have kicked back into gear, even if only temporarily due to a decent amount of consecutive hours of sleep.
I was at T's two week follow-up and I started thinking...when (and why) do Doctor's stop telling you your height and weight percentiles? How fun would that be as an adult? Probably not very much, but it would be pretty funny to go to your yearly Doctor's check up to be told that you've gained 6 pounds but you haven't grown any taller, so you fall into the 53rd percentile for height and the 95th percentile for weight... I wonder if it would motivate people to lose weight, or gain weight...either way I think it would be funny. Not that I really want to be told that I am off the charts for my weight (at least right now I could kind of blame it on post-pregnancy weight, right?) and slightly above average for my height, but it would make each check-up a little more interesting. You could make bets each year to see where you fall on the scale! We could get the Vegas odds-makers in on it too and turn it into the next big gambling idea! If they can place bets on how long the U.S. anthem will last at the World Series, or which way the coin toss will fall...we can bet on anything, right? It's the next great get rich quick scheme!
So I am sure most of you aren't stopping by here for my random rants on even more random topics anymore...but be warned, as the days go by, my random ranting will return, not to mention so will Mark's random and slightly offensive rantings! But for now I will cut to what everyone is waiting for (and by everyone, I mean probably just Grandparents and a few aunts!) you want T's stats, don't you?? At her first appointment she weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces (drumroll please...) she now weighs 7 pounds 13 ounces - putting her squarely in the 25th percentile for weight. She also grew a whole inch and now comes in at 21.25 inches in length, which puts her in the 75th percentile for height. Somehow we wound up with a very long and lean child... which boggles our minds given our thoughts that she would probably inherit my short waistedness and Mark's even shorter inseam - topping out at a whole 3 feet tall at her tallest. So we're not quite sure where she gets it from, but if she keeps it up, she should be a happy teenager!! Well, once she gets over the vampire-esque glow of her skin she should be happy!

Pictures

Melanie and I have always said that this site will not turn into a baby album or journal about baby poops. We still stand by that claim, but when your baby is this damn cute you have to post a couple of pictures. So here is the introduction of little Tennyson now that she is growing out of her newborn, bulbous headed alien looking stage. The first and second pictures are my favorites; they seem to show her emotions. She is either a really happy baby, or inherited her bowels from her father. Enjoy the pictures and thank you to everyone who has reached out to us over the last few days. We will be in contact once we get some sleep, so never.

Apparently, she is a big Austin Powers / Dr.. Evil fan already! One miiiiillllion dollars please!

Tennyson Rose Smith

Tennyson entered this world at 6:59 a.m. CST on June 9th. She weighed 7 lbs, 8 oz and is 20.25 inches long. She has beautiful dark hair and a somewhat bulbous head. She has settled right into her role of looking beautiful and bringing Mommy and Daddy to tears with the slightest little whimper. Both mommy and baby are doing well. As her namesake said, "My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure". Here is one quick picture; we will have more up soon.

Update

Just wanted to update everybody on the name game. The name has never been written on this blog, the Book Club post may just be a hint at one of the two names we like. I do want to acknowledge Kyndra's awesome comment, but the name Clarkson or Kelly is much more likely after Mel let my little secret out. There is still a $50 prize to anyone who can guess the name, but you better respond quickly as the contractions are 5-10 minutes apart right now.

I also wanted to post a few pictures of our baby preparations. Below are some pics of our nursery; also some pictures of her closet full of clothes. This will be one spoiled little girl, and if it is a boy it will be one purty little boy dressed in a year and a half's worth of pink dresses.

Enjoy the pictures and put your guesses in before the contest expires.

Zestpoole, Walkasheaqua, Tugdick*...help us decide!

As time is winding down, we are left with one of life's biggest decisions...what in the world do we name a little person?? If you scan the shelves at any store that sells books, you'll see book upon book of names, some claiming to list over 100,000 name choices!! How is someone supposed to narrow it down to just one name? It sort of reminds me of the menu at The Cheesecake Factory (have you looked at that thing??) - way too many choices to remember what you saw on page one. You have to take notes as you flip through it so you can remember what sounded good!

I have never been very good at making decisions, especially when there are too many choices in front of me (luckily our name book only had 60,000+ names to leaf through). Somehow though we have narrowed it down to two names. The hard part will be picking the winner - I have convinced Mark that however determined he is for "his" name to be the winner, to wait until he sees the little one before his mind is completely set in stone.

Mark has very rigid guidelines for picking names. Some of these were that it couldn't be on any "top" lists - top 10, top 100 etc. I am like the anti-bandwagon jumper. For some reason, unless I liked it prior to a rise to fame, I will not join in the fun of something if it has become a pop culture phenomenon (i.e. Harry Potter - I just refuse and you can't make me)...I know I am weird like that. Anyway, so no top baby name list entries is the first guideline. My next guideline was that the name has to be a "bit" different, and by a bit I mean every so slightly - like Melanie. People are familiar with it, but it's not the name of every other girl in your kindergarten class. Especially for a girl being given the last name of Smith, you need something a "little" different (I am afraid we won't be naming anyone Emma, or Joseph). Mark's next guideline is on a little different wavelength than mine, but the name can not be associated with anyone in the adult entertainment industry (Sorry Jenna and Traci).

So after the names pass those and a few other guidelines, Mark must do his usual anal rituals of googling names to see what comes up, how common it is, what searches it finds... checking social security records, the FBI's 10 Most Wanted lists...whatever he can find. It's a long process folks. For me, I just wanted us to go through our book individually, make up our lists and see if we had any of the same names written down (I think we wound up picking one name in common that we both liked). Then the fun part of vetoing names came. I have to say I was quite surprised with some of the names Mark came up with. After hearing all of his suggestions for a boys name (can I just say how glad I am that we're having a girl?!), I wasn't expecting most of the names he said he liked for a girl. I will leave it to him to share those with you at a later date so he can explain why he liked them (and why I vetoed them).

So here we are with our names, and Mark has made me swear not to tell them to anyone. He is so impressed with his name choice that he thinks once it is revealed everyone will bow down at his feet due to his pure genuis-ness.

What I want to know, is what do you think our name choices are? I wonder if anyone could guess what Mark has chosen. I am willing to bet that no one will be able to guess his choice, although if you really know Mark, it won't be a huge stretch to understand why he picked this name.

It's such a huge responsibility in naming a kid. You don't want them to hate you forever for the name you saddle them with, and you don't want a name that will make for obvious teasing on the playground...it's a big decision! So hopefully our child will not hate us no matter what we decide to name her!

And with that - let the guessing begin!! Don't disappoint me!

*A great big Thank You to the Utah Baby Namer (http://wesclark.com/ubn/) for the name suggestions!

A Legend Passes

I've always loved fashion (even if my outfits didn't show it), in fact I wanted to be a fashion designer for most of my younger years - until I realized it probably wasn't my strongest talent. However I have always retained my love for haute couture and all things Paris (France, not Hilton). When we were in Paris, I stood outside one or two designer stores...I couldn't bring myself to go in knowing I could never afford to buy anything...drooling over window displays. In fact I was able to stand in front of my favourite designer's store and ogle and admire the displays. It was as close as I would ever come to a famous fashion designer!

So when I got to work this morning and opened up http://www.cbc.ca/ to catch my dose of homegrown news, I was saddened to read that Mr. Saint Laurent had died. He brought so much to the world of fashion and is probably one of the most famous, well known and well worn designers ever. Such amazing creations and talent were brought to life through his talent. He will surely be missed.