Just Will

When Steve and I found out we were expecting a boy we had a very hard time trying to choose a name. We'd lost a baby a few years earlier that we had called George. Both after Steve's grandfather and after the old cartoon . . .

I'm going to love it
and squeeze it
and call it George!

Steve wanted William relatively early in the pregnancy and I immediately vetoed it. My grandfather was named Willie and everyone called him Bill. In the older days, most Williams ended up being called Bill as well. I didn't want anything of my son to remind me of my grandfather -- not my favorite person in the world.

Oh, I loved -- and still do -- Steve's Uncle Bill (who William is named after). But I vetoed the name choice early.

It wasn't until months later that I realized we could name him William and call him Will. Yeah, pregnancy really does mess with your brain cells bad enough logical thinking takes months instead of minutes to achieve.

My only requirement was that is we named our son William he was to always be called Will -- never Bill or Willie.

I must have been sending these thoughts to Will prior to his birth because he refuses to be called anything else . . . always has. Anyone that calls him bud, buddie, son, boy, young man, handsome, cutie, cutie pie, sport, brother, onery, feisty, stubborn . . .

If any one, any where, calls him anything besides Will, he immediate responds with, "I'm not ____. I'm just Will!"