So We May Have a Miracle on Our Hands, Folks

On a walk Sunday night, Dave asked me out of the blue, "Was it you that liked the name Annalise?" Though not sure who he might have been confusing me with (does he have daughter-naming convos with other chicks?) I responded in the affirmative.

"Well, I like it too," he pronounced. We stared at each other in wonder.

"Really?" I ventured. I didn't know what to say. Dave and I had completely dropped the baby-naming discussion a couple of months ago because we like each other too much to want to feel constantly annoyed by each other's terrible tastes.

"Yes," he nodded.

"Well," we said, marching down the street in stunned silence.

"What would a good middle name be?" Dave asked mildly, so as not to upset this wonderful agreeing-ness. "I like Rose," he offered.

"That's fabulous!" I exclaimed.

"But her initials would spell ARF," he said, letting out some woofs. "Arf, arf!"

"Marie would flow beautifully," I told him. "Annalise Marie."

This was not his favorite. We tried out lots of options. We realized it was very hard. We also realized we mostly agreed strongly about middle names we liked, as well as ones that wouldn't work. It seemed extremely miraculous. I mean, I'd idly prayed here and there that we would eventually come to a satisfying agreement, but I certainly didn't think it would actually happen.

We decided for the sake of flow, what works best is a middle name with two syllables, the accent being on the second syllable. Like Marie, Renee, Noelle, Jolie. I really like Annalise Jolie. (Jolie means 'pretty' in French, a language I studied for 6 years.) Dave says it reminds him of Angelina. So we're not there yet. But we've made progress. YIPPEE!!!