Summary of Famous Calvin's

My ADD kicked in, and I wasn't able to make it a series of posts about famous Calvin's, but here is a summary of some of the important ones (wikipedia has information on everything!)

Meaning and Origin of Calvin

Calvin \c(a)-lvin, cal-vin\ as a boy's name is pronounced KAL-vin. It is of French origin, and the meaning of Calvin is "little bald one".

Impact – this made me laugh out loud with irony – even though he’ll probably not get my luxurious hair locks, I found it pretty funny

Calvin Score – 4 / 5


Calvin and Hobbes - Calvin demonstrates a level of wisdom, vocabulary and humor unusual for a six year-old boy. He shows little interest or success in interacting with any "real" characters, choosing instead to spend the majority of his time with Hobbes, with whom he frequently embarks on imaginary adventures, debates philosophical issues, plots various pranks against girls, and fights. Calvin is impulsive, insubordinate, imaginative, intelligent, hypocritical, energetic, curious, bratty, rambunctious, obnoxious, selfish, and short-tempered.

Impact –Gives me the opportunity to purchase countless decals for my truck.

Calvin Score – 5 / 5


Calvin Broadus –Better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, record producer, actor and entertainer. Kool Moe Dee ranks Snoop at #33 rapper of all time, and says he has "an ultra-smooth, laidback delivery", and calls him "one of the smoothest, funkiest flow-ers in the game

Impact – One of my deepest unspoken desires is that one day I can look back on Calvin and say that he is "one of the smoothest, funkiest flow-ers in the game".

Calvin Score – 10 / 5


Calvin Coolidge - The 30th President of the United States (1923–1929). A Republican lawyer from Vermont, he was elected as the 29th Vice President in 1920 and succeeded to the Presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small-government conservative, and also as a man who said very little. He has been called the most “libertarian” president, and focused on laissez-faire government.

Impact - Seems like my kind of president – I’ll make sure to use his presidential biographies as bedtime reading in a few years when I need to lull Calvin to sleep.

Calvin Score – 4 / 5


Calvin Johnson - Football wide receiver for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Lions second overall in the 2007 NFL Draft. He played college football at Georgia Tech. In his career at Georgia Tech wearing number 21, Johnson made a case for being the greatest Georgia Tech receiver of all time.

Impact – Local Atlanta kid whose nickname is “megatron” and whose team might actually not lose 10 games this year

Calvin Score – 4 / 5


Calvin Klein - American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. In 1968. In the mid-1970s, he had created a designer-jeans craze by putting his name on the back pocket.

Impact – I’m wicked fashionable

Calvin Score – 2 / 5


Cal Ripken - nicknamed "Iron Man" is a former Major League Baseball shortstop and third baseman. He played his entire 21-year baseball career for the Baltimore Orioles (1981–2001) and is perhaps best known for breaking New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig's record for 2,131 consecutive games played, a record many deemed unbreakable.

Impact – eh, didn’t play for the Red Sox. Not overly impressed.

Calvin Score – 2 / 5


Calvin H. Borel - is an American jockey in thoroughbred horse racing and rode the victorious mount in the 2007 Kentucky Derby, the 2009 Kentucky Derby and the 2010 Kentucky Derby. His 2009 Derby win with Mine That Bird was the second biggest upset in Derby

Impact – Weird looking dude, but gives me someone to bet on for the Triple Crown races

Calvin Score – 3 / 5

John Calvin - Influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism

Impact - Calling our parents “Calvinist’s” is kind of enjoyable

Calvin Score - 2/5

Thats about all I could find, outside of some Taiwanese boy band members, an NBA HOF'er who has had some "personal issues" and biochemical system process

Let me know if I missed any!

Calvin James and Friends

We named our son Calvin for numerous reasons -- none of which are overwhelmingly important but we really liked the name.  It's easy to spell, classic and will look good on a business card.  Those are enough reasons for us.  Aside from us momentarily forgetting his name 24 hours after delivery, we have been saying it over and over again in hopes that it will come naturally to us at some point.  It definitely has helped and one week later, we feel more confident calling him Calvin (not, Kelvin, Calver or Grover -- other names that popped in my mind).  At some point, I'm sure his friends will nickname him Cal or CJ but until that day, I'll be calling him Calvin.

Calvin came just in time for me to celebrate my first mother's day after 1 week of relaxing with him and Jon.  We had a great week getting to know each other and allowing the dogs to adjust to the new routine.  We have had a number of visitors to see Calvin and we're lucky to have so many friends not afraid to hold a newborn.  Well, almost everyone was not afraid -- Simmons was terrified but survived the 45 seconds holding him.

  Uncle Adam and Auntie Alice

                                                     

Uncle Simmons

                                                                

      Uncle Mike (Auntie Sari not pictured)

                                                 

Calvin in his jammies and hat from Ecuador

                                                            

   Tummy time/nap time with Daddy

                                                    

Darby finally getting brave to venture close

My Birth Story -- 4/29-4/30/11

So many people have asked me, "What's the story?"  "How did you know you were in labor?" "How was it? Painful?"  In an effort to address everyone's questions, here is the story.  It's not one that I'm likely to forget. In fact, I remember details down to the minute.  Normally my memory is somewhat shaky when given a few days to forget the minutiae but not in this instance.  I don't think any woman forgets the details of her labor and delivery.

It really started on Wednesday when Jon made the eggplant parmigiana from the Scalini's recipe. We had Kyle and Lauren over for some dinner and kept our fingers crossed for labor to begin soon.  Supposedly their dish will put you into labor within 48 hours.  We ended up being right on the cusp...

Friday afternoon after a full day of work, Jon and I took Bessie and Darby on a long walk around the neighborhood.  It was about 2 miles long and I was sure that walking that much was bound to get some results.  Nearly through with our walk, we came across some teenagers throwing sticks and taunting dogs behind a short fence of a house. My maternal instincts kicked in and I ended up screaming at them from down the street.  They probably looked at me like a pregnant lunatic (which I kind of was) and shortly thereafter, I was a pregnant lunatic in labor.  My back started really hurting by the next block and came in strong waves of back pain.  Every book I've read said that true labor pains start in the back and radiate to the front.  Since these weren't radiating anywhere, I just assumed my lower back had had enough of the third trimester and long walks.  We decided to go inside and get some dinner.  By the time dinner was heated up, I was in enough back pain to feel nauseous and not much like eating.  Jon just looked at me and said, "this could be a long night.  Eat it down."

Flash forward to 9:30pm when the back pain finally radiated to the front.  I started feeling waves of pain every 5-8 minutes that required that special breathing they teach you in the birthing class.  We called our midwife and she just laughed when we told her that it had been going on for an hour.  She said, "you'll probably have a lot longer to go but come in or call back whenever you'd like."  Well, I'm no wimp and I was determined not to be that woman who goes to the hospital immediately and then labors for 90 hours. I jumped in the shower to freshen up my hair and to relax a bit before attempting to get any sleep.  We were going to try to stay at home as long as possible.  The food is better here.

Jon downloaded a contraction timer app on his phone  and managed to time a few before falling asleep completely.  From 11pm-1am, I either poked him in the ribs to start the timer or I just timed myself.  Overall, the contractions weren't horrific.  I was expecting  them to be much worse than they were.  They were tolerable and lasted only a minute.  You can almost survive anything in 1 minute doses as long as it ends at some point.  The difficulty I was having was that I was really tired.  Unlike Jon, I couldn't really sleep the 2-5 minutes in between contractions. They were still sporadic but were increasing in intensity and frequency.  We decided to head to the hospital at 1:45am.  Fortunately we didn't have to worry about any Atlanta traffic (Jon's worst pregnancy nightmare).

One thing I have to say about the hospital is that it's just cruel to ask a woman in labor to check herself in. I mean, really?  I pre-registered and my insurance information hasn't changed.  My preferred language is still English.  What is the point of entering all of the paperwork beforehand if you're just going to make me wait another 20 minutes while I'm having contractions.  You'd think they would streamline this a bit...whatever.  Short digression.

After checking in, the exhausted midwife on call said I was 3 cm dilated and 60% effaced (aka, still a long way to go sweetie).  It's now 2am, I haven't slept and she gives me the option of getting an epidural and pitocin.  For some reason, I'm not ready to go there yet and decide to try to progress things "naturally."  Basically, Jon and I wander the halls of Northside Hospital for 2 hours,  stopping every 4 minutes for me to breathe and overcome another contraction.  We're shuffling along and I've had enough.  I'm just too tired to continue.  We head back to the room at 4:30am where I tell the nurse that I'm throwing in the towel and that I want an epidural so that I can sleep through some of these ridiculous contractions and rest up for the delivery. 

Fortunately at 4:30am, the lab isn't really busy, so my blood was processed quickly for platelet counts and the nurse started the IV drip to boost my blood pressure before calling in the anesthesiologist.  The anesthesiologist was a very nice woman who was very helpful and let me know exactly everything she was about to do before she proceeded.  I thought that was a good tactic considering she was about to shove a needle into my spine but what she understated was how painful the shots of lidocaine was going to be.  I jumped when she put in those shots as it felt like hot oil bubbles under my skin.  She said, "you can't jump during the next one."  The actual epidural didn't hurt at all -- it just felt like pressure. I can handle pressure.

After the epidural, I settled down for some napping.  How wonderful to sleep through the contractions! Thank goodness for medicine.  I would've really struggled to keep my sanity had I not been able to sleep an hour or so.  I just needed a nap.  Jon went to find breakfast at 7am so he wouldn't pass out later.  I kept munching on my ice chips.

Around 9:15am, I woke up to a cutesy alarm from the epidural machine.  I couldn't really see what it said but it was flashing red and I had the sinking feeling that the red light and alarm meant that it was running out.  I pushed that nurse's call button 20 times until someone arrived.  Umm...fix that please!  It was also around this time that I mentioned to the nurse that I was feeling "weird down there."  She took one look and was like, "Oh, you're about 10 cm. Don't push yet we're not ready."  Sure -- no problem.  I'll just ignore the pressure and breathe shallowly.  The nurses got all suited up, Jon grabbed a leg and it was go time.  After pushing like a "super start pusher" for 18 minutes,  I delivered our little boy at 10:02am.  He came out all blue and icky but he was the most beautiful thing ever.  Jon got to call out the sex  and cut the cord and was really a part of my delivery.

The nurses cleaned him up while he was on my chest and we got to spend our first moments bonding together.  He was 7lbs 14 oz and 20 inches in length when he was born.  The midwife couldn't believe that he was so big as she was sure I would have a small baby.

Overall, my labor was 14 hours long -- 10 of which were unmedicated.  The last 4 on the epidural were well worth it as it allowed me to sleep, push with my contractions and really reduced my stress and Jon's anxiety.  It was a great experience and is something that I can definitely do again -- with an epidural ;-)

Famous Calvin's in History - Part I

While we have had very positive reviews to Calvin’s name, most people have not heard of very many Calvin’s out there. So this is Part I of a series highlighting famous Calvin’s throughout history as well as a proprietary “Calvin Score” for each person:

We'll start off with a former leader of the free world and the "most libertarian president in history" - President Calvin Coolidge

John Calvin Coolidge, Jr., (July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was the 30th President of the United States (1923–1929). A Republican lawyer from Vermont, he was elected as the 29th Vice President in 1920 and succeeded to the Presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small-government conservative, and also as a man who said very little.

Although Coolidge was known to be a skilled and effective public speaker, in private he was a man of few words and was therefore commonly referred to as "Silent Cal." A possibly apocryphal story has it that Dorothy Parker, seated next to him at a dinner, said to him, "Mr. Coolidge, I've made a bet against a fellow who said it was impossible to get more than two words out of you." His famous reply: "You lose.”

He has been called the most “libertarian” president, and focused on laissez-faire government. His reputation underwent a renaissance during the Ronald Reagan Administration, but the ultimate assessment of his presidency is still divided between those who approve of his reduction of the size of government programs and those who believe the federal government should be more involved in regulating and controlling the economy.

During Coolidge's presidency the United States experienced the period of rapid economic growth known as the "Roaring Twenties". With the exception of favoring increased tariffs, Coolidge disdained regulation, and carried about this belief by appointing commissioners to the Federal Trade Commission and the Interstate Commerce Commission who did little to restrict the activities of businesses under their jurisdiction. The regulatory state under Coolidge was, as one biographer described it, "thin to the point of invisibility."

Coolidge's economic policy has often been misquoted as "generally speaking, the business of the American people is business". Some have criticized Coolidge as an adherent of the laissez-faire ideology, which they claim led to the Great Depression. But most of the issues of the day he left to the responsibility of state and local governments.

Coolidge's taxation policy was that of his Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon: taxes should be lower and fewer people should have to pay them. In addition to these tax cuts, Coolidge proposed reductions in federal expenditures and retiring some of the federal debt.

http://www.xaviercromartie.com/2009/12/libertarian-ranking-of-united-states.html

Overall, seems like my kind of president and could give us another nickname option (although after spending the past week with Calvin, I'm not sure if he qualifies as "silent Cal" )

And, I’ll make sure to use his presidential biographies as bedtime reading in a few years when I need to lull Calvin to sleep.

Overall Calvin Score – 4 / 5