Well, we might as well just say it...

I know that I've been withholding the information that everyone asks to know--our baby's gender--from this blog for a long time now. It is really quite silly, because all our close friends, family, coworkers, and even my students all know the gender. I was hoping for some divine inspiration for a creative way of announcing it, but alas all my creativity has been channeled into creating a cute nursery, keeping the interest of my students, or one of the other various outlets of my brain and time that consume my daily existence.

It's a... BOY!

Phew, now that I've gotten that out of the way, let me address one more thing that is now annoying the crap out of me.

NO, I will NOT tell you the name. 

 Half of the reason for this is that we can't really be sure we know it. Half the reason is that I've already told you everything else about this baby (and if I haven't yet, it will be coming in a blog post at some point), and I want to keep something to myself! Surprises are so rare in life, relish them.

Names have a lot of meaning, in my opinion. I deal daily with a litany of characters, both fictional and real, and many of their names have been ingrained in my mind for both good and bad reasons. That being said, every other teacher out there has the same issue and experience. Therefore, if my name was "ruined" forever by an insubordinate student, I don't want to know about it. All those names that have been ruined for me have already been eliminated. Relatives and close-friends' (who all beat us to the chase) names have been eliminated in round 1. The next challenge is finding a name that suits both the parents, which is a whole new challenge. Kyle will fight to the death to name our son "Jedi" if I let him. He's been throwing "Eduardo" out there for months. If he ever takes this task 100% seriously, I will be suspicious and that he is crying wolf. But somehow, we made an agreement (I think) and I feel like we've accomplished one more thing on our ever-lengthening list of "prepare for the baby to-dos".

So, in case you wanted the proof, here is the original gender revealing ultrasound of our little man, growing larger and more active every day.

This was taken during spirit week for Homecoming on Nerd Day with my coworker Elizabeth.

This was Farmer Day this past week. I did what I had to do with the belly getting in the way!