Anna

Last week Elian asked me if I was in love with the name Anna. I told him no. He then suggested we rehash the name debate to see if we could agree on a different name. Historically, we have NEVER agreed on girl names (except that once, when we named Lexi, although, Elian still wishes we had actually named her Lexi instead of Alexis). Fully convinced playing the name game would be futile, but being a little dissatisfied with Anna myself, I consulted a couple of baby name websites once more.

I spent about 30 minutes making a short list of names I liked. If memory serves me correctly, which it may or may not at this point in the pregnancy, all the names I wrote down this time were on my previous list. And we all know how that turned out - Anna was the only name we could both "live with". But who wants to "settle" on their child's name?

I showed Elian my new list, and the only name he liked was Allie. We tossed it around in our minds, looked up possible spellings and meanings, and decided we both liked it better than Anna. And it just so happens that Elian's paternal grandmother was named Allie.

With the new name feeling right, we now had to decide how to spell it. Ali, Allie, Alli, Ally, or Alley. We narrowed it down to the first two spellings. Elian liked Ali, and I liked Allie. We thought about it for a few more days, and neither one of us came around to the other's preferred spelling. So we let our family vote. And, in the end, our younger daughter's name has finally been decided: Allie Grace Levatino. That's good news, as I am now past the 36 week mark, and I was 2 cm at my last OB appointment. That means Allie could make her debut any time now...HOORAY!