By Tim Engstrom,

Pothole Prairie

It’s a boy!

Forrest Eugene Engstrom was born into this world of ours at 3:57 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24, one day before my 36th birthday. He weighed 8 pounds and 7 ounces, with a length of 20 inches.

Now I&8217;m a daddy. Lisa is a mommy.

And I&8217;m speechless. We are joyful, happy and content. A lot went into this moment. Here&8217;s the background:

Though Lisa is from the Chicago suburbs and I am from rural Iowa, we lived in Ellensburg, Wash., in the summer of 2005 when we set about a plan for children.

Lisa and I met in Ames, Iowa, in 2000. She was a college student, and I was a newspaper reporter.

I got a job as the editor of the newspaper in Ellensburg in April 2001 and she moved to

Washington state in January 2002. We wed in June 2004 with a ceremony on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River at Bellevue State Park in Bellevue, Iowa.

By 2005 I was eager to have a baby, but Lisa expressed a desire to live closer to her family first. We both agreed that living closer to both our families would be good for our children.

Her parents and most of her siblings live in the Chicago suburbs. My folks and brother now live in Minneapolis, and my sister and her family live in Des Moines, Iowa.

In Washington state, we enjoyed hikes through the national forests. We talked about names. All the big-time rodeo cowboys seemed to have names that were also things: Stone, Flint, Buck, Cash, Rope, Blue.

We thought of a few names we liked that were also things. We also wanted names of family members.

Lisa and I decided the first names of our children would be names that were things. The middle names would honor family members.

We decided I would name the first boy&8217;s first name. She would name the first boy&8217;s middle name. She would name the first girl&8217;s first name, and I would name the first girl&8217;s middle name. (We agreed to switch for the second boy or second girl.)

With as much as we enjoyed the forests, I picked Forrest as the name. Lisa&8217;s father is Eugene and so is her grandfather.

She likes Pearl Jam, so for a girl&8217;s name she picked Pearl. The matriarch of the Engstroms is Daisy Engstrom.

So we picked Forrest Eugene and Pearl Daisy. And we stuck by the names, too.

I started looking for newspapers in the Midwest. Various opportunities presented themselves, and I really liked what I saw in Albert Lea and the Albert Lea Tribune. I felt recruited, and I think Albert Lea is a wonderful place to raise children.

We moved to Minnesota in February 2006. I started this job as editor. We moved into our house in Albert Lea in March of last year, and by June we were settled.

We decided it was time to make a baby.

So here we are. Our dream is realized.

Labor is nothing like TV shows and movies make it out to be. They make it seem like one long contraction and the mom pushes nonstop. In reality, she pushes during contractions with pauses between. The recorded sounds they use make it seem like the baby always bawls its head off. Forrest cried a little at first but mostly was quiet.

Lisa is a good pusher. She is a strong woman, and I can&8217;t say enough here about how much I love her. I don&8217;t know what else to add. Like I said, the experience leaves me without words to describe it.

I came home to let the dog out Saturday night, and I turned on the television. The movie &8220;Forrest Gump&8221; was on ABC on Saturday night. People we know called to tell us what a coincidence that is.

Plus, Forest Whitaker on Sunday was handed the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in &8220;The Last King of Scotland.&8221;

It&8217;s a good time to be Forrest.

Having a son on Saturday made Sunday my best birthday ever. He is a beautiful child and makes the cutest goo-goo sounds. He hardly cries and is content sucking my finger when I hold him.

What else is there to say? Lisa and I are elated. I love it when a plan comes together.

Tribune Managing Editor Tim Engstrom’s column appears every Tuesday.