The decision has been made, and it has been very difficult! Thanks to everyone for your strong words of encouragement and suggestions - we couldn’t have done this without you! We’d like to thank our family, our friends, our agent, and Maggie our dog for making this day a reality.

Seriously - we can’t wait to see all of the great things Tane Walker will do! Tane is actually a Maori name (New Zealand native tribes) so he will forever have a connection to his birthplace. In Maori the pronunciation is “Taw-nay”, but we will be using the anglicized pronunciation - “Tayne”. Tane means “Forest” and in Maori culture is the God of the Forest.

Tane will need all of our support as he learns to sleep through the night and hold his head up on his own - so hopefully we can get each of you over here sometime soon to help out!

So our son is now 5 days old and still lacks a name. He currently goes by “Baby Brother”, “Little Man”, and “Cutie”.

As luck would have it, we are a family of many “Georges”. My grandfather, Jen’s father and grandfather, my uncle who recently passed away, my other uncle on my dad’s side, and of course my middle name. We’ve made a ground breaking decision - the middle name will be George.

Now for the tough part.

We want a name that is unique, but not silly. A strong name that will give him confidence and pride as he grows into a man. Perhaps some meaning - Irish heritage, New Zealand citizenship, Biblical.

And because everyone is so anxious for a name - here it is - it will probably be one of the following. So get prepared - everyone’s favorite little guy will soon be known as:

KALLAN GEORGE WALKER (Kal)
TANE GEORGE WALKER
KIAN GEORGE WALKER
EMMETT GEORGE WALKER
ELIJAH GEORGE WALKER (Eli)
GABRIEL GEORGE WALKER
BECKHAM GEORGE WALKER
BECKETT GEORGE WALKER (Beck)
KIRBY GEORGE WALKER
KIERNAN GEORGE WALKER
KEIRAN GEORGE WALKER
KEEGAN GEORGE WALKER
TASMAN GEORGE WALKER (Tas)
THATCHER GEORGE WALKER
CAVAN GEORGE WALKER
TATUM GEORGE WALKER (Tate)
TANA GEORGE WALKER
TYNAN GEORGE WALKER
TEGAN GEORGE WALKER
TANE GEORGE WALKER
TEAGUE GEORGE WALKER
NASH GEORGE WALKER
CALLUM GEORGE WALKER (Cal)
TATE GEORGE WALKER
OSCAR GEORGE WALKER

There it is….discuss.

What does he look like?

Ladies and Gentlemen - the long wait is over, and I am here to tell you that there is a now a new member of the Walker Family. A little man, currently known as “Baby X” or “Little Brother” has joined our little tribe. The midwives have suggested we name the little guy “Elton” after the song “Rocket Man” as he was saying hello to the world about 30 minutes after we got to the hospital. So - no drugs, no waiting around, just wonderful, natural childbirth!

So the stats: 6:23 AM, Feb. 20, 2006. 7 lbs. 5 oz. (3.3kgs). 20.5″ (52cm).

Dark hair…Blue eyes…Beautful Baby Boy. Click this link for more pictures.

We have a bunch more to put up in the next couple of days, but I have come to realize that I have the worst Internet Service Provider on the planet - or close to it. If you’re in New Zealand, I cannot say enough negative things about a little company called IHUG. Then again, it’s 1:30 AM and I’ve been awake for awhile.

Not to end this on a negative note - we are absolutely thrilled to have this little guy in our lives. As you all know, this was a huge surprise for us as we had all expected to take home this baby in some little pink dresses. We’ve been blessed to have Jen’s parents with us to help us out the past couple of weeks, and cannot wait to bring this little guy to our new home tomorrow morning. Please call us on my cell phone or our home number if you’d like to talk to us, and we hope you can all enjoy our new baby boy with us soon!

As we had not prepared for a little boy, we do not yet have a name for this kid. We’ll post an update soon with all the new details including the spelling of his name. Ella has been great, and to use her words “Bye. Baby Crying Mouth”

2 out of 3 isn’t that bad is it? Furniture showed up a week ago, so our place now looks like a UPS depository. Thankfully, Jen’s folks showed up a couple days later and have helped rectify that problem in a couple key rooms. In general, most things were in great shape, and casualties seem minimal.

So while we continue to wait for the baby (due date is officially today), I thought I’d update everyone on our little Ella. Miss Ella has grown up overnight. She is now speaking in broken sentences, and repeating just about everything we say. New words in her vocabulary have included “Naked People”, “Library Books”, “Party Boat”, “Spicy!”, “No Mags!”, “Help by Daddy!”, “Poop on Potty” and our new favorite - “Big Girl Bed!”.

Maggie finally has the cone off of her head, and we are gradually becoming expert Petanque players. At some point in the near future I intend to take part in a little sport that seems to occur daily outside my office window - kite surfing! Just seems like a blast - I’ve already told Ella about it so she knows the motions and everything - very bright my girl!

One last small world story for the road - Jen and I finally found a good Mexican restaurant in NZ. There’s only 3 within driving distance, and we just randomly stumbled on this one - still not perfect, but very close. Anyway, turns out it’s owned by an American guy and his Kiwi wife.

So his wife sits down to start talking with us and she said - “Oh, you’re from the States! Our best friends are in the States! They live in a place called Cumming, Georgia - ever heard of that?” Apparently their best friends live about 5 minutes from our home in the States - now that’s just crazy.

Hope everyone is well - the weather is beautiful this way - so come and see us soon!