What's in a name?

Rihanna just came on my iTunes at work, so I'm inspired to share the latest development in the babydom (as in kingdom...another one of my made-up words). So basically, I'm one of those people who plans life events way in advance. Way, way in advance. Case in point. I've basically had my baby names narrowed down for the last two years or so. I know...I'm special:) The challenge I face now is, even though Kyle and I are calling Little Miss by her name, I still haven't declared it publicly. It's because I have a problem committing. The only two decisions I can recall never second-guessing were marrying Kyle and deciding to bring Little Miss into our crazy life. Everything else requires thorough research, discussion, deliberation, pro/con lists, etc. I overthink everything. Absolutely everything. And while I'm pretty sure I've aged myself a bit for less than worthy reasons, I'm still doing pretty well, so no reason to change my practices now, right?

I'm telling you all of this so that you can appreciate how incredibly difficult what I'm about to do is for me. I am going to share baby girl's name with you. And honestly, I'm really nervous, because like I said, I haven't declared it publicly. Whenever I've shared it with anyone, I've prefaced it with, "I'm pretty sure it's going to be..." But the thing is, whenever I've pictured her during the last couple of years, her name has always been the same.

Ella.

The middle name is new, though. Harper. So there you go. Ella Harper Payne.

I say that Rihanna inspired me to blog about it because "Umbrella" came on, and Brittney and I have talked over the last year about how we can't wait to sing it to her. You know..."Umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh..." (I also can't wait to sing songs from "Cinderella" {the Disney movie, not the hair band}. I will figure out a way to make them work.) So I decided to put it out there in the universe and see how it felt. Feels pretty good so far, but I haven't hit "Publish Post" yet. We shall see how it goes...