I Win.

Fabio and I do not see eye to eye on baby boy names. When it comes to girl names, we are good to go, but boy names are another story. We discovered this about eight months ago when we realized we were responsible for determining what a human being would be called for his/her entire life.

Fabio likes crazy old man names like Leroy, Merle, or Wolfe (no offense to anyone reading this who has these names--you are probably an old man, but I admit it's not fair to assume you're crazy). I like more traditional names like Seth, Samuel, and Joseph. Generally speaking, we're pretty good at compromising on stuff we don't agree on. However, about once a year or so, Fabio and I find ourselves in a disagreement that each of us refuses to budge on. We dig our trenches and a war of attrition ensues... each of us waits, hoping the other will give first.

Baby G's name has proven to be just such a situation. For the first six months we pretended it wasn't something we had to decide, waiting for the other one to forget his/her preferences. Now as the big day comes closer and closer we've both grown increasingly concerned... maybe the other one isn't going to give, after all.

Well, the war is over. Fabio made a naive bet with me this summer, grossly underestimating my determination when properly motivated: if I finished my Portuguese Rosetta Stone course (which I hadn't worked on in over a year) before the baby came, I could name him whatever I wanted; on the other hand, if I didn't finish before he came Fabio could name him whatever he wanted.

I win.