Hint #3

3. The name appears in at least three different books of the Bible.

2. The name does NOT, however, appear in the Top 100 most popular male names for 2007.

1. The name appears on the SSA's list of the 1,000 most popular male names for 2007.
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There's an extra dose of estrogen around here

Our niece Joie has been spending part of her summer at her grandparents' house, and has been over visiting with us the past couple afternoons. I remember when I first met Joie, she was probably not quite 2, and she wouldn't even come near me. She just hung out by her mom and let her big sister Alyssa do all the talking.

Four years later - what a change! She was a non-stop chatterbox, full of stories about her swimming lessons and siblings (her brother Curtis, she claims, "only comes out of his room to eat and play Wii").

It was fun having another girl around the house, though. Here she is posing after I braided her hair.








Silas also enjoyed having his cousin over. He did his best to keep up with her, but didn't really appreciate having to share his toys.



"Umm, that's mine, thank you."


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Hint #2

2. The name does NOT, however, appear in the Top 100 most popular male names for 2007.

1. The name appears on the SSA's list of the 1,000 most popular male names for 2007.
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One Year Pictures

My sister-in-law, who is a wonderful photographer, recently took some one-year pictures of Silas. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll let them do the talking:













P.S. If you click on a picture, it will take you to a new, larger view and you can right click to download. It will be a fairly good quality picture for putting on your computer, but if you want the highest resolution for printing, just e-mail me.
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Hint #1

Just nine weeks to go! Here's your first Name Game hint:

The name appears on the SSA's list of the 1,000 most popular male names for 2007.
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The Rules

Since you already know it's a boy, we figured the official arrival of our son would be rather anti-climactic if you knew the name as well. Thus, we've chosen to keep it a secret.

Of course, I've never been good at keeping secrets. So, with Silas I devised this little guessing game. I actually thought it would be fun to offer a prize to the first person to guess the name correctly, but my stingy entrepreneur husband :-) thinks it would be better if you pay us.

Just like last time, all payments can be made in the form of [Oregon-income-tax-deductible] contributions to our kids' 529 (college savings) fund.

Here are the official rules for the 2008 "Name that Kid!" game:

1. For $5, we will confirm or deny any name guess.

2. For $50, we will narrow the list of possibilities down to 5 names for you (but you must keep it a secret!). You are also then ineligible for Rule #1.

3. For $500, we will just tell you the name (again, you must keep it a secret!)

4. For $5,000, you can personally name our kid! Of course, we reserve the right to turn down any offers. For instance, using "Indiana" could cause marital strife for certain members of our immediate family.

Finally, I will be posting several free hints between now and the due date of September 14. You are free to speculate by leaving comments on the blog, but only guesses backed up by $ will be answered.
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The Name Game

I've been getting lots of requests to bring back The Name Game. Matt seems to be set on keeping the name a secret again, but if I can talk him into it, then you should see some name hints here on the blog starting soon.

I will tell you this though - we won't be taking our naming advice from Nicole Kidman!

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The Big Birthday Bash

On Sunday we celebrated Silas' first birthday. He was thoroughly spoiled by his grandparents and given lots of cool (and noisy!) toys from crazy aunts and uncles and friends.








Guess what? I'm 1 - yea!







I made Silas this beautiful cake, which he quickly destroyed.

Some video clips from the party

Q & A with a one-year-old

Where's your teeth?

Where's your nose?

















Where's your eyes?

















How old are you?