November 5, 2009

Pam was reclined on the sofa with a book full of baby names in her hands when Jim walked through the front door early that evening.

“You’re home!” he exclaimed as soon as he noticed a few wavy strands of hair spilling over the arm of the sofa.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” she asked looking over towards the clock. “But you’re home early.”

“Trying to get everyone at work used to the idea of me being gone.” he replied as he walked around to where Pam lay reclined and planted a slow, soft kiss on her lips.

“Me too,” she said with a smile. “I left work after lunch.” Jim’s eyes widened and he chucked to himself.

“Pam playing hooky?” he teased. “Where is my wife and what have you done with her?” She giggled and watched him as he walked back towards the kitchen.

“I just got really tired around eleven this morning.” Pam explained as her gaze turned back to the book in her hands. “That, and I couldn’t take any more of Andy singing ‘Baby on Board’.”

“What?” Jim asked as he grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and started to walk back over towards the couch.

“You know that song from The Simpsons?” Pam clarified.

“I…I honestly don’t think I do.” he said, shaking his head as he sat down next to her feet.

“It’s this song from The Simpsons, where Homer writes a song about Maggie that’s inspired by one of those car signs from the eighties that says, ‘Baby on Board’.” she explained further. Jim shot her an incredulous look and she simply laughed and teased him, “Apparently you need to brush up on old episodes of The Simpsons.”

“Apparently you’re watching too much television.” he teased back at her.

“Well, to be fair, Andy explained most of it to me.” she said. “Not that I exactly cared.”

“Of course not.” he said as he took a long drink from his water. “So is this what you’ve been doing all afternoon?”

“Lying here?” she asked in reply.

“And reading…” he narrowed his eyes to try and make out what was on the cover – though most of it was covered by her fingers.

“Baby names.” she replied, holding up the book only by the edges so he could clearly see the front.

“Oh, Pam…” he chided, shaking his head.

“What?” she asked, a smile starting to tug at the corner of her mouth.

“A book of baby names?” he asked, holding back his own laugh. “Where did you get that? The checkout line at the grocery store?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.” she said, unable to hold back her grin any longer.

“Okay, seriously,” he teased again, “what have you done with my wife?” She laughed and nudged his thigh with her foot.

“I just thought that maybe it would be interesting to look through it and see if there were any names suggested in here that we haven’t yet thought up on our own.” she said.

“I thought we were happy with the couple of names that we had thought up so far.” he said.

“We are.” she said, nodding. “I just thought I might look through a book or two and see what I could find. Who knows! There might be a great name out there that we haven’t even thought up yet.”

“If you say so.” he said. “Have you found anything fun so far?”

“I have found some rather interesting names.” she said. “Fun? Definitely. Usable? Eh…”

“Throw ‘em at me.” he said, eager to hear what sort of names she had managed to find on her own throughout the course of the afternoon.

“Okay,” she said flipping back a few pages, “these are the boy names.” Her hand quickly went to her stomach as she felt the baby shift slightly.

“I thought we liked Damien.” he said with a sly smile.

“That’s only if he comes out with devil eyes.” she teased. “Anyway, Nordic boy names.”

“Nordic?” Jim asked with wide eyes.

“I didn’t say they were any good.” she replied. “First name! Knud.”

“What?” Jim asked. He tried to hold back his laugh, but instead it just came out as a loud snort.

“What was that?” Pam asked loudly as she giggled.

“What kind of a name is Knud?” he asked.

“Apparently Nordic.” she said nonchalantly. “Oh! And it means ‘knot’.”

“I think that I’m going to have to put that name into the lists of, ‘Oh no way’.” he said.

“Oh thank goodness.” she said with a quick breath. “I don’t think that the baby liked it much either.” She ran her hand against her stomach again as she felt the baby shift a second time.

“Did you get kicked?” he asked as he leaned forward and rubbed his hand against the bottom of her belly.

“No, not yet.” she replied with a resigned sigh. She always teased Jim that they weren’t going to get a ‘soccer playing’ child. She felt the baby move all the time, but she hadn’t yet felt any real kicks. She was happy that she hadn’t been kept awake at night by a kicking baby inside of her, but on the other hand, she felt like she was kind of missing out on a special milestone in her pregnancy.

“Soon.” he said as he drew his hand back to his lap. “Hit me with another one.”

“Okay…” Pam said as she started to flip through more of the pages. “Here’s another great Nordic name.”

“Ooh!” Jim exclaimed, clasping his hands together.

“Okay, this one is really great…” she said with a wry smile. “Thor!”

“Thor?!” Jim laughed loudly.

“What?” she asked. “You don’t think that Thor Beesly-Halpert has a nice ring to it?”

“I hate to disappoint you,” he replied, “but I think that Thor is behind Knud.”

“Darn.” she said with a smile as she shook her head. She started to rifle through more of the pages until she landed on the section of girl’s names. She hadn’t spent much time on the girl’s names because she already knew what she wanted to name the baby if they had a girl. She had yet to run a lot of the names floating around in her mind by Jim.

“So what’s next?” he asked.

“Girl’s names.” she replied as she landed on a page full of ‘K’ names.

“Great! Go for it.” he said as he began to rub his knuckles against the arch of her foot. She looked up at him and completely lost her train of thought as his fingers ran along the bottom of her feet. Normally her feet were extremely ticklish, but now…now a foot rub seemed like the greatest idea in the world.

She let her head tilt back and she stretched her legs out just a little bit farther to give Jim better access as he absentmindedly ran his hands along her feet. She closed her eyes and sighed deeply.

“Earth to Pam.” he said as he watched her facial expression completely change. He pulled his hands back into his lap and she audibly groaned as he did.

“No, don’t stop.” she moaned as her eyes opened and she scooted further down, trying to give her feet access to his hands again.

“What?” he asked, looking at her with an amused expression on his face.

“Foot rub.” she pleaded as she kicked her feet up and down on the top of his thigh.

“Give me a name.” he said with a smile.

“Khedija.” she said quickly looking at the first name that she saw in the book.

“Kah what-what?” he asked.

“Khedija.” she repeated as she stretched her toes out, trying to get him to touch the arch of her foot again.

“Really?” he asked.

“It’s pretty.” she replied.

“You don’t think it’s a little too…oh, exotic? Especially for Beesly-Halpert.” he said as his index finger traced a line down the middle of her foot. She squealed out loudly, that tickled.

“I’ll bet she’d be the only girl with curly red hair and pasty white skin named Khedija.” she teased.

“I would bet that too.” he said with a smile as he cupped her foot in his hand. “I’ll rub if you suggest some serious names.”

“What an ultimatum.” she said with a wink.

“I’m waiting.” he said as he poised his knuckles against the arch of her foot.

“For a boy.” she said closing her eyes, “William.”

“William.” Jim repeated. “Not bad.” He ran his hand down Pam’s foot and her head immediately lolled back towards the arm of the sofa.

“Even better than Thor?” she teased.

“Much better than Thor.” he said.

“I also really like the name Aiden.” she said, “For a boy.”

“Not bad, not bad.” he said as he lifted her legs and scooted closer to her then draped her legs over his and continued to rub her foot.

“Or Jacob.” she said as she folded her hands over her stomach and felt the baby shift more.

“I really like Jacob.” he said nodding.

“I think those are my top three at this point.” she said. “What about you?”

“Boys names?” he asked.

“Or girls names.” she replied with a shrug.

“Well, I really like the names that you chose.” he said as he placed his free hand on top of hers.

“Of course.” she grinned.

“I would add Benjamin to that list though.” he said. Pam nodded thoughtfully. She didn’t think it was a ‘William’ or a ‘Jacob’, but it would make a good middle name at the very least.

“I like it.” she said with a smile.

“And girls names.” he continued thoughtfully. His hand stilled against her foot and she quickly pushed against it twice to try and get him to commence again. He smiled at her with a grin that told her there was something mischievous going on in his mind, but she didn’t say anything.

“I like the name Pam.” he said with a smile.

“No,” she said shaking her head, “absolutely not.”

“You don’t want a daughter named after you?” he asked.

“Absolutely not.” she repeated.

“But it’s my favorite name in the whole world.” he said with a smile as his hand started to work away at her foot again. She grinned and looked away slightly. She was amazed, after several years of being together he still could make her blush like a little girl.

“Okay, okay,” he continued, “girls name I like that aren’t Pam…”

“I like Isabelle.” she interjected.

“You don’t think that’s too common?” he asked.

“Who cares if it’s common,” she replied, “it’s pretty.”

“I like Audrey.” he said. She nodded thoughtfully.

“I like it too, actually.” she said.

The two of them sat in a silence for a few moments, going through various names that they liked. Jim watched Pam’s face as she thought of names and he enjoyed watching her lips move silently as she would think of a first name and add ‘Beesly-Halpert’ to the end.

Suddenly, Pam jumped, as if she had been startled awake. Jim’s hands fell away from her feet and he looked at her with a curiously cautious grin on his face.

“Think of something awesome?” he asked.

“No…” she replied cautiously and her hands ran over the rounded part of her stomach.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, the grin starting to fade away.

“I just felt…” she replied, but before she could finish the sentence, she jumped again and her eyes widened.

“What?” he asked, anxiously as horrible worst-case scenarios raced through his mind.

“The baby kicked.” she said holding her hands against the spot on her stomach where she had felt the kick.

“No way.” he said, his hands immediately pressing against her stomach.

“No, right…” she grabbed his wrist and shifted his hands up to where she had felt it, “here.”

As if summoned to do so, the baby immediately kicked against Jim’s hands and an enormous smile crossed his face. He thought for certain that he would miss the baby’s first kick – whenever that happened – and here he was, actually witnessing it.

“Wow.” was the only word that he could actually say as he felt the baby kick two more times before it stopped.

“I was wondering when that was finally going to happen.” Pam said as she relaxed back into the sofa and smiled. And she had been. As many jokes as she had made over the past couple of months involving the absence of a baby kick and how their child definitely wasn’t going to be athletic – she was relieved to finally feel a real, solid kick. She was only three and a half months away from her due date and the kick that she felt acted like a solid affirmation that this was going to work and the baby was healthy.

“I’m glad I came home early.” he said.

She smiled warmly, “Me too.”