The origin of Macyn "I." Jackson

Some of you may, but most of you probably don't know that Macyn's middle name is Irie....yes, say it with me now...Irie. Now let me tell you how we arrived at that middle name, and then I can share my family's reaction! :-)

Selecting Macyn's first name was pretty simple for us, well for me at least--I tend to get my way with some smooth talking and persuasion--that is the marketing genius in me...Ha! :-) Anyway, one weekend we were heading up to Indy, or Lafayette an I took my laptop and spreadsheet I had created to keep track of the baby names I liked...so I popped open the laptop and told Chad...we are going to have this baby named by the time we get to....umm wherever it was we were going...maybe it was Indy...oh my aching brain cells! Okay, back to the story. We went over all the names we had listed and narrowed it down to 4 or 5 names...Macyn, Macy, Kendall and Piper. Once we narrowed it down we each picked our top two and plead our case for those two names. Kendall was almost a definite out, since we can't name our kid after a brand of wine...so it was down to Macy and Macyn...not much difference...Macyn won simply because she can always shorten it to Macy if she chooses...or in our case if her Grammy chooses! Grammy calls Macyn Macy-poos!

We still didn't determine the middle name, but all in all it was a productive trip I thought...we had finally named our baby! So for the next month or two we pondered over middle names. Chad kept saying I think we should name her Macyn Rena after you, even though I know you hate your middle name. I, being in my pregnant, and often emotionally fragile mind was absolutely and 100% opposed to that. Where was his lack of creativity...and really did he think I would fall for--"It has a nice ring to it!" Bah! NO! Not only is my middle name Rena, but so is my Mom's, Britni's, Amanda's and Kailie's! We did not need another Rena in the family.

So I started asking other people's opinions. Friends, family, co-workers...pretty much whoever for fun name ideas. One particular co-worker--Deon Gobinsingh told me that he would figure out the middle name for me because he had named like all of his nieces and nephews--yeah right...this guy barely knew me...like he's really going to pick my kid's namesake. Somehow he managed to be true to his word, though I don't think he really intended to do so. Deon kept telling me, I really think you should name her Macyn Marie...uh no. Again, he tried to con me with the..."but it has a good ring to it"...nope sorry dude...not happening.

One day, we were in a department meeting and Deon used an island slang which I hadn't heard in a while...and it struck me...I was like D...what did you say? And he repeated himself, "ya know, everything is Irie, its all good! That was it right there! Happy face on me!! I told him, I think you just came up with Macyn's middle name! :-)

And that folks, is how Macyn became Miss Macyn Irie Jackson! Chad loved the name, I loved the name, and it meant something to us. We had honeymooned in Jamaica and fell in love with the term there...and it's meaning was simple and finite--Everything is going to be all right!

So the fam's reaction--What? How do you pronounce it again? What does it mean? My Grandma--"can I just call her Tinkerbell?" sure grandma! :-) People grew to love it though...she's our sweet little island girl! Can you guess what the theme of her 1st birthday is going to be? YAY!

P.S. So, I hope to keep posting these random thoughts about Macyn on a more regular basis in an attempt to have some sort of document of her first year and prior to, because I am doing a poor...very poor job at keeping her baby book updated!

P.S.S. Here's a self "family" portrait taken on vacation...we are all tan and in bright colors...I thought it was appropriate!