Getting creative this weekend with Ali Edwards

I'll definitely be doing this project this weekend with everyone in my family - including Brad!  And I'll enlist everyone's help in naming Harrison's petals.  :)  I'm going to cut them out and make a little bouquet to put in my crystal vase.  Love. It!

Baby Names - Thomas Harrison

Well, as I alluded to in my post about Elizabeth's name, Brad and I chose a boy's name and a girl's name when we had the baby naming conversation in 1986. The boy name? Thomas Harrison. His middle name came about first. I knew that I wanted to name my first son after my Grandpa Harrison (my maternal grandfather). I adored my Grandpa - all of his grandchildren adored him. He was a precious man. I spent many a wonderful summer day at his house on the lake. I was devastated when he died shortly after my 18th birthday. I miss him to this day. Yes, Harrison would be what this son would be called. We worked and worked on possible middle names for Harrison, but nothing worked. Finally we settled on Thomas as his first name. Thomas is Brad's middle name, Brad's dad's first name and my paternal (I use that word loosely here) grandfather's first name (Papa was my biological father's step-dad and I loved Papa Stone dearly, too). Brad got a kick out of the initials being T.H.E. - not sure why, he just did. We had several discussions about calling him by his middle name. Brad said, "If we're going to call him Harrison, we need to NAME him Harrison." Um, Kemosabe, I'm not sure what planet you just fell off of - but we ARE naming him Harrison. "No, it needs to be his FIRST name." Harrison Thomas? Blech! I finally convinced him to see it my way - plus there's the whole, cool THE initial thing, Brad!

Finally, in February 2008 - a little over 21 years after choosing his name, Harrison came into the world SCREAMING. I mean, the child was totally ticked off before he was fully delivered. After we got into the Mother-Baby Unit, they'd come get him at midnight every night to do his vitals (yes, really - midnight - can you believe that mess?!). The first night, he screamed bloody murder. The next night, he did the same. On the third day, he was being weighed three or four times a day (dehydrated and lost 12% of his body weight - not cool). Baby Dude was *madder than a hornet* about all this undressing/redressing, getting poked and prodded at every turn and there's no other way to say it! The nurses would come get him and say, "Come on, Harrison! It's time to go wake the unit!!" They all remarked on what a temper he had, even when he was just days old. I'd laugh and say, "He's just showing us that we gave him the right name. He has The Harrison Temper." Apparently (though I never witnessed it) that temper was legendary with my Grandpa Harrison. All of his kids and at least one of his grands (ahem, yours truly) inherited it - and my sweet baby guy has inherited it as well. I'm sure it's going to be a tool for his - and my - sanctification as he grows! But he is a sweetie and we laugh at how perfect his initials are now - T.H.E. since he is T.H.E. last baby. :)

Oh yeah, and had he been a girl? Mary Juliet. Mary - quite obviously qualifies for the saint thing. Mary was also the name of a Tudor, like all of the girls (the first living daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon - not exactly a compassionate woman, though. I'm sure you've heard of Bloody Mary? Yeah, her). Juliet was chosen by Nin and Brad really liked it - giving her middle name personal meaning to our family since it was chosen by a big sister. Had Harrison been Mary Juliet, we likely would've called her by both names.

Baby Names - Anne Lancaster

When Katherine was 9 months old, I found myself pregnant again.  And yes, I was just as shocked as I was when I learned I was pregnant with Nin.  If you've never experienced long-term infertility, you don't understand the "I don't get pregnant like 'normal people' do" thought process.  We seriously had thought the pregnancy with Katherine was a fluke.  But now, here I was - pregnant again and finding out on Easter Sunday - we joked that there was an Egg in the Basket. Seventy-two hours later, I started bleeding.  Thankfully, we hadn't discussed names yet.  Maybe when Nin was two we'd try again.  Man makes his plans, but God directs his paths.  {laugh}  Yes, we made our plans and God had other ones. My miscarriage was complete and didn't require medical intervention at all.  By mid-April, I was fertile again and on May 1, I learned I was pregnant again.

I seriously considered ditching the queen/saint pattern for the name Caroline Fern - Caroline because we liked it, a lot; and Fern for my maternal grandmother (my grandmother would have been 86 on Dec 6 that year - she died Oct 30, 1960). However, I had the nagging "we've started this pattern, I don't want to ditch it with the third baby" feeling. PLUS, my cousin and his wife had a little girl named Caroline. I didn't want my grandmother to have two great-granddaughters named Caroline.  So, I started researching names again.  Anne. A queen - and specifically a Tudor woman (like Elizabeth and Katherine) - and a saint.  Plus an adorable nickname in Annie.  Loved it.  So did Brad.  But, Anne Fern was NOT going to work.  It was important that this baby be named after my grandmother.  Wilma (her first name) absolutely not. But her maiden name was Lancaster.  Anne Lancaster.  Brad and I looked at each other and knew immediately, that was IT!  Anne Lancaster and we'd call her "Annie". 

I know a couple of other Annies in addition to my own - one is about to be six, one is five, mine is three.  All three of them are little imps! They are absolutely adorable but man...do these girls have some spunk! Confirms to me that my Annie has the perfect name for her personality, too!

Baby Names - Katherine Martin

So, Elizabeth Jane is 8 months old, still doing the "commando crawl" (on her belly, pushing with her feet, pulling with her arms looking like a little Marine) and I'm incredibly tender when she nurses, falling asleep during her afternoon nap, dizzy, nauseated at the smell of the chicken I'm preparing for dinner and oh yeah...a week Late. (you know, "Honey. I'm Late" - with a capital L).  But, Elizabeth was our infertility baby. It took us a surgery, a ton of Clomid, and two IUIs to get her - surely I'm not *pregnant* - there's no way! I couldn't be. We didn't go see Dr. Moutos! Well...I was most certainly!  What a shocker!! But what a joy.  And then...oh, no! We've used our "girl" name!  And the other girl name I had loved was Sarah - funny thing was - Emily Anne had a little sister named (you guessed it) Sarah.  Sarah was out. 

As Brad and I drove out to my parents' house to tell them our news, we started discussing baby names.  He said, "What will we name the baby if it's a girl? We have a boy name already."  I said, "My only requirements are that her first name be the name of a queen and a saint - just like Elizabeth. And her middle name must have personal significance to us."  He said,"I like Katherine. It goes well with Elizabeth.  Katherine Lyn since Lyn is your middle name."  I told him that I loved Katherine - with a K so we could call her Kate, after my Daddy's Aunt Kate (a most precious woman). He agreed.  I said, "And according to the Social Security Administration and IRS, my middle name is Martin since I took my maiden name as my middle when we got married. I would like to honor my daddy since this will likely be the last baby we have."  (honestly, we thought she was a fluke!) "Not to mention, Lyn does nothing for me even if it was my middle name at birth."  He said it aloud a few times and then declared, "Katherine Martin. I like it. That's it."

There it was - within five hours of finding out I was pregnant, Katherine's name was chosen. Katherine was born when Elizabeth was 16 months old - so in the beginning she was just "beh-beh" (baby).  My dad and I worked on her, "Can you say Baby Kate?" because my intention was that Katherine would be called Kate.  Elizabeth wouldn't say it.  Brad would coach her to say "Katherine" - she wouldn't say it.  Then one morning in October 2004, at the age of 20 months, Elizabeth walked into the nursery and said, "Hi, NinNin!" and there it was - Katherine's nickname.  By the way, it's not Nin Nin - it's really more "Ni-nin" (short i sound) but for some reason I spelled it NinNin the first time I wrote it down and that stuck.  Katherine is much more a "NinNin" than she is a "Kate".  When she was three, she would actually introduce herself as NinNin. We shorten it to Nin quite often now and it fits her perfectly. Everyone who spends any time with her quickly learns to call her that because that's just who she is! 

Baby Names - Elizabeth Jane

I've recently started reading Lindsay's blog because I love to think about and talk about baby names.  There's just something special about choosing the name that your sweet baby is going to have (or be stuck with if you blow it) for the rest of his/her life.

Hopefully my children will think we gave them excellent names.  I promised Lindsay I'd blog about why we chose each of the names we did.  So, here's the first post.  :)    And as I type, Martina McBride's song Blessed is blaring on my iTunes.  Y'all know I love that song, right?  If not - well, I do. Really. Proof is here and here.  Anyway...now here is the post.

Elizabeth Jane - Our first-born. The baby we waited years to have.  When Brad and I were dating, we had a conversation - if we were to get married and have kids, what would we name them.  We chose a boy name and a girl name.  The girl name was Emily Elizabeth (this was before we knew about Clifford the Big Red Dog - and that wouldn't have made any difference anyway). We also didn't care that her initials would be EEE - we actually liked that.  Emily was for Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth for Elizabeth Barrett-Browning. Happy coincidence, Emily Dickinson's name was Emily Elizabeth, too.  (can you tell I loved lit in high school and college?).   That was in December 1986.  Then in 1996, I saw Pride & Prejudice on A&E.  I was drawn to Eliza - and loved the name.  Plus, one of my favorite movies of all time is My Fair Lady - but really, could I call a child Eliza without thinking "Eliza Doolittle"?  Yeah, absolutely.  But what middle name would I put with Elizabeth (which, both of these Elizas were)?  Jane - perfect.  Still literary - Jane Austen.  We could have a girl, name her Elizabeth Jane.  Sweet Little 'Liza Jane (c'mon, you're singing Vince Gill now, aren't you?)  So - without Brad's knowledge, I was falling in love with another name and it was quickly surpassing Emily Elizabeth.  In September 1999, some dear friends had a baby girl and named her Emily Anne.  Brad looked at me and said, "We need a new girl name."  Don't worry buddy, I've got one.  We continued to hope and pray for a baby - and it continued to NOT happen.  I started researching the meanings of the names I loved.  Jane - God is gracious.  As we struggled with infertility, the meaning of Jane became more important to me than the literary connection. It became much more important.   And on April 25, 2002 - as a newly pregnant me laid in bed with my now daddy-to-be husband and discussed "what will we name this child?" the meaning of Jane became the most important thing about her name.  Sure, we batted around a few other options but I continued to be convinced that Elizabeth Jane was this baby's name (and I was sure she was a girl).  We briefly entertained the idea of going with Emily but I said, "There are entirely too many Emilys in the world." 

So, Elizabeth Jane was the final decision - and it fits her perfectly.

The Fancy Birthday Party

Oh what a fun and fancy time we had at Nin's 5th birthday party! My mom and aunt went above and beyond decorating for the fancy fête! Here are the tables where we ate cake and ice cream.

The Cake table. Boop did a wonderful job decorating this table!

The goodie bags. The guests got one of each bag. The Fancy Nancy bags contain candy. The purple bags on the left contain a silver mini Friendship Ball which has a sterling silver bracelet and ring in it; a bottle of bubbles and a few pieces of candy. The purple bags on the right contain lavender soap petals.
The cake on the cake plateau. Definitely not a professional job, but Nin loved it and thought it was "the most beautiful cake, EVER!"
Our fancy cake knife/server and Fancy Nancy napkins - and we were definitely tres, tres fancy girls!
The fancy - and French! - birthday sign.
The Fancy Birthday Girl
The chairs that "look like they're getting married" to quote one of my girls.
A view of the party room.Here is the gift table before it was laden with gifts.
Sweet Sister-Friends
Nin blows out the candles on her cake. Notice the earrings? That's an accessory tip from Fancy Nancy - Christmas ornaments on a loop of fishing line hooked onto your ears. The girls loved them!!
Annie applauds Nin's blowing-out-the-candles skills.

Mom & Me Tea at Preschool

Nin sings to me: