The Little Presidents

I've had a few people ask me why we call the boys "the little presidents". Nick and I  had talked about baby names for several years prior to getting pregnant and we have always loved the name Pierce. We were set on that name if we were to ever have a boy. When we found out we were pregnant and at least one of the twins was a boy, Pierce it was!!! We honestly thought for a while that the other baby was a girl. I had had a friend at work sono me and she said she thought one of the babies was a boy (Pierce) and one was a girl. This was obviously wrong and when we got our results back from our maternity 21 test, we knew we had two sweet boys!!!!

Then the process of picking out another boy name began. We took our time. We struggled with finding another name that we both really loved. We searched high and low - through baby name book after baby name book and baby name app after baby name app. In one of the baby name books, I stumbled across names of presidents. It just happened to be that Pierce was the last name of the 14th president. It was like a lightbulb went off in my head and I wanted to call them our little presidents. 

Nick is a very strong republican and firm in his beliefs. I thought presidential names for our two nuggets would be very appropriate. When I made the suggestion, Nick was on board and the name game got real. 

We tossed around several names for a while and changed them up weekly. On our list were : Lincoln, Carter, Harrison, Walker and Hayes. We would spend the week talking to them and calling them Pierce and _____(fill in the blank with one of the above names). We would toss around possible nicknames and sometimes that would quickly eliminate a name. For instance, our last name is Job (pronounced like the book in the Bible) but most people say Job (like I have a job). So when we started talking about nicknames for Harrison we were adamant that no one call him Harry. If you put Harry with Job (like I have a job) - it could be rough growing up. So we nixed all the names eventually and I was bummed. I really loved the thought of calling them our little presidents. 

Naming the kiddos got real when I was admitted at 24 weeks for preterm labor and was placed on bedrest. I told Nick that we really needed to make a decision in case the boys came early. Well, we still took about 8 more weeks to decide on a name. Naming two boys is hard!

We really wanted something that was different but not too different. We didn't want them to be in a class with a bunch of kids with the same name. Being that I am a labor and delivery nurse, I know what a lot of the trendy names are right now and I wanted to steer clear of them. We also didn't want anything too traditional. 

I started digging into names of presidents. I started looking at middle names and came across the 11th presidents name, John K Polk. What did the K stand for? Thank you to google, I learned it stood for Knox. I had a feeling I would have to do some hard selling to Nick with the name. One morning while we were laying in bed, I suggested Knox. Much to my surprise, Nick liked it. We did our thing for the week calling the boys Pierce and Knox. We loved it and so they became Pierce and Knox!!!

Pierce's middle name is Alexander after my dad, Craig Alexander and Knox's middle name is Collier which is my moms maiden name. I adore their names and although it took us a while to name them, their names were worth the wait. 

The problem then became which one would be named what name. The more pregnant I got, the more clear it became. I could not really feel the baby that was on my right side, so he became Knox. I would occasionally feel a knocking from him but he was pretty chill( as he still is). Pierce became the baby on my left because he would physically hurt me. His movements were piercing for lack of a better word! Pierce was extremely active and I thought the name was very appropriate :) - he is still active and fits his name well. 

The little presidents are amazing little nuggets and Nick and I feel so blessed everyday that God would give us such an incredible responsibility. We hope they are men of God. That they are happy, loving, respectful men with integrity and respect for others. I have all the confidence in the world that they will be. 

Pierce and Knox, mommy and daddy love you more than you'll ever know. We love watching you play and grow. It's so cool to watch you boys start to recognize our faces (you know our voices) and we can tell you are starting to recognize your surroundings. We love snuggling with you and getting to know you as you get to know us. You've filled our lives with more joy than we ever thought possible and we look forward to watching you learn and grow daily. Keep smiling little ones. We love it!