Isaac Nikolai Aleksei

That's his name! Here's the breakdown:

Isaac is for Asimov (Genius), Hayes (Soul), and Mizrahi (Taste and Sass).
- Isaac Asimov was a famous science fiction author in the 20th century, very prolific and renowned for his mensa-qualifying intellect.
- Isaac Hayes wrote the theme from Shaft, and many other funk opuses in the 1970s. His 1990s detour as the voice of Chef in South Park and his conversion to Scientology are hopefully not indicators of future paths for our Isaac.
- Isaac Mizrahi is a clothing designer and talk show host, who is very sassy and stylish. His sass rarely goes to the side of mean...

Nikolai: A double on this. First off, Nick has always been a favorite name of mine, much as Isabella was an "always favorite" of Pamela's. Secondly, Bella's Uncle Chicken (aka Soo-pah-man, aka Nick) is a good friend and a surrogate member of the family, so he's a good person to be named after.

Aleksei: This is a nod to his older brother Alexander, who passed away in 2000.

Today has been a whirlwind: The night was punctuated at 2 hour intervals by mister squawker... It was easy to fall back into the habit. Bella woke up this morning and was very annoyed that we had moved Isaac back into our room for the night. She wheeled the bassinet back into her room and slammed our door.

Pamela and Bella went off to church this morning, and spent some one-on-one time. When they returned, Auntie Carrie was visiting... then Anne and JeMae and Jenny came by, and Bella got VERY envious of the attention her best friend was giving to Isaac, and we had a full blown regression - baby talk and pouting. That eventually blew over and the girls were able to play for a while. Bella really is being a good sport, but this is bound to be hard!

Bella is back with Grandma and Grandpa for the night, who will take her to school tomorrow, mostly so that we can get in to see the lawyers right away and not have to worry about finding things to do with Bella.

I did send the notice out to my coworkers... and one wrote back with a cute bit of verse incorporating all of our project phases into the rhyme! Alas, with only 18 days to go before we go live, and up to two weeks of 24-hour support after that, I will not be able to take a whole lot of time off... we'll be counting on our family and neighbors to help us make it through!

In all, day two with Isaac is going very well: Right now, we have no visitors, Bella is off with grandma, Pamela and Isaac are having a nap on the couch, and all seems right in the world.