Thanks for stopping by our family library and website! We have created this website as a place to track the books in Baby Kane’s library and share tid-bits about our family. Head over to the library tab to check out or contribute to our library!

Read on below for news about the Kanes of Bradley Place.

Some Data on the Name Game

John and I didn’t really discuss potential baby names much before we found out we were expecting, so I was super excited for the process and interested to see how difficult it would be to name our child. It turns out it was pretty easy- like most things, John and I seem to have similar schools of thought and are highly influenced by the things that charm each other. That’s not to say it was without some contention and heartbreak- there were some names thrown out due to strong feelings from the other person (mostly due to characters in books on my side, and a curious swath of names excluded due to college debauchery witnessed by John).

The charts below show the rankings for the names we are considering for Baby Kane, by Sex. The most favored names (highest ranked) have the longest bar- so, yes, John and I share a top pick for one sex. We had a lot of fun seeing these preferences represented visually.

The charts are purposefully deidentified and we’re not telling anyone which chart is which or revealing the names under consideration; we love everyone dearly but are not seeking feedback on this one! Also, no matter what Grandma Karen says, she does not know which chart is which - nor the name on which John and I agree (love you, Mom)!

♥ Kaitlyn

Baby Kane in Black and White

We got to see our little one for the first time on April 5th, 2022! Baby Kane was largely uncooperative in this process but luckily the lovely technician was able to get all of the measurements and images after a brief interlude of juice drinking, George Ezra music, and jump squats by Kaitlyn (John was very amused by this). Luckily the little one moved enough to get what we choose to interpret as a wave (left) after greeting us their little feet (top right).

The results of the ultrasound indicate all aspects of Baby Kane were “seen and unremarkable” and we couldn’t be happier to have such a child of no particular note. The technician did say Baby Kane has “long arms”, so maybe they’ll be a pitcher? The technician offered no comment or reaction to this idea, but we think our little one is already looking strong (bottom right).

A Library? Isn’t that over the top?

Yes! But we’re leaning into it and building this has given us something to work on together while we excitedly await the baby’s arrival.

It’s no secret that we love to read and one of the things we are are most looking forward to is reading with our children! We have curated quite the library between the two of us - We like to collect books from bookstores wherever we travel (Kaitlyn once returned from Ireland with more books than shirts in her suitcase; John regularly packs more books than pants in his). We hope our kids will inherit a love of reading, or at least find joy and peace in being surrounded by books as we are.

We have begun collecting books on our travels and from our favorite Chicago bookstores and hope our family and friends will send us books close to their heart to share with our little one! The Library tab of this website shows all of the books we have in our children’s library, so far. We’ve also coded a map to display where books were bought or where the book’s contributor lives and a plot to show the distribution of genres represented in the library.

If you’re thinking of sending Baby Kane a book, you can see if we already have it using the search box at the top of the Library tab. You can also filter the table by genre or contributor’s origin if you’re interested in exploring our library! If you buy us a book, go ahead and enter it into the library using the “Add a Book to Our Library” section of the Library tab! Your book will show up on the map and in our library once you do!

Exciting News from Bradley Place

Baby Kane is expected to arrive mid-August 2022! We are so excited and very grateful to become parents.

We opted to wait until birth to find out the sex of our little one. Why? Because despite John being the most pragmatic person in the world, the look on his face was so charming and full of wonder when he said it “would be fun to be a surprise when they’re born” that any desire I had to know ahead of time were completely zapped away!

We heard the heartbeat for the first time at our 14 week appointment on February 24. John recorded the heartbeat on his phone and I made it into a little video to spread the news! We really enjoyed sending it to family and friends. We’ve listened to it about a million times; it’s the greatest sound in the world, as far as we are concerned!

♥ Kaitlyn