Baby Names - Thomas Harrison

Well, as I alluded to in my post about Elizabeth's name, Brad and I chose a boy's name and a girl's name when we had the baby naming conversation in 1986. The boy name? Thomas Harrison. His middle name came about first. I knew that I wanted to name my first son after my Grandpa Harrison (my maternal grandfather). I adored my Grandpa - all of his grandchildren adored him. He was a precious man. I spent many a wonderful summer day at his house on the lake. I was devastated when he died shortly after my 18th birthday. I miss him to this day. Yes, Harrison would be what this son would be called. We worked and worked on possible middle names for Harrison, but nothing worked. Finally we settled on Thomas as his first name. Thomas is Brad's middle name, Brad's dad's first name and my paternal (I use that word loosely here) grandfather's first name (Papa was my biological father's step-dad and I loved Papa Stone dearly, too). Brad got a kick out of the initials being T.H.E. - not sure why, he just did. We had several discussions about calling him by his middle name. Brad said, "If we're going to call him Harrison, we need to NAME him Harrison." Um, Kemosabe, I'm not sure what planet you just fell off of - but we ARE naming him Harrison. "No, it needs to be his FIRST name." Harrison Thomas? Blech! I finally convinced him to see it my way - plus there's the whole, cool THE initial thing, Brad!

Finally, in February 2008 - a little over 21 years after choosing his name, Harrison came into the world SCREAMING. I mean, the child was totally ticked off before he was fully delivered. After we got into the Mother-Baby Unit, they'd come get him at midnight every night to do his vitals (yes, really - midnight - can you believe that mess?!). The first night, he screamed bloody murder. The next night, he did the same. On the third day, he was being weighed three or four times a day (dehydrated and lost 12% of his body weight - not cool). Baby Dude was *madder than a hornet* about all this undressing/redressing, getting poked and prodded at every turn and there's no other way to say it! The nurses would come get him and say, "Come on, Harrison! It's time to go wake the unit!!" They all remarked on what a temper he had, even when he was just days old. I'd laugh and say, "He's just showing us that we gave him the right name. He has The Harrison Temper." Apparently (though I never witnessed it) that temper was legendary with my Grandpa Harrison. All of his kids and at least one of his grands (ahem, yours truly) inherited it - and my sweet baby guy has inherited it as well. I'm sure it's going to be a tool for his - and my - sanctification as he grows! But he is a sweetie and we laugh at how perfect his initials are now - T.H.E. since he is T.H.E. last baby. :)

Oh yeah, and had he been a girl? Mary Juliet. Mary - quite obviously qualifies for the saint thing. Mary was also the name of a Tudor, like all of the girls (the first living daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon - not exactly a compassionate woman, though. I'm sure you've heard of Bloody Mary? Yeah, her). Juliet was chosen by Nin and Brad really liked it - giving her middle name personal meaning to our family since it was chosen by a big sister. Had Harrison been Mary Juliet, we likely would've called her by both names.