What's in a name?

Several people have asked how Elizabeth got her name.  Well, I'll tell you.

Pretty much as soon as Abby was born, I decided that if we ever had another girl I wanted to name her Elizabeth.  After my grandmother.  Abigail could have very easily been an Elizabeth as well - but I fell in love with the name Abigail and wanted to save Elizabeth to use as a first name.  So, we put it in our back pocket.

Since we didn't find out the gender of what we were having, it was easier to put off the naming game.  Around 5 or 6 months pregnant I told Kyle we should discuss names.  He agreed, and - we kept putting it off.  One day, we were walking home from dinner and I said "we should talk baby names, if it's a girl I really like Elizabeth - just sayin'"  He said he liked the name and asked how long I'd been thinking about it.  I told him "pretty much since Abby was born"  And - that was that.  If it was a girl, we would name her Elizabeth.

Elizabeth is my grandmother.  It is also my aunt's name and my middle name.  So, it's been in the family for a while - but my little Elizabeth is named after my grandmother.  Grandma is an amazing amazing woman. Anybody who knows her will attest to that.  She is, among other things, the perfect grandma.  My earliest memories of being at her house involve making cookies with her, smelling bread baking (there's always bread baking), and listening to her play the piano.  Classical music was always playing from the little radio in the kitchen.  She used to keep those little crystal lite plastic cups and I would use those to play tea party, I remember listening to her and my grandpa talk on the ham radio - the sounds of various people chiming in was usually in the background.

These are all just little memories, but the point is - I don't have any bad memories of being at Grandma's.

Even today, Grandma leads a busy life.  She's been battling some knee problems most of this year - but she is pushing through her therapy and being so strong about it all.  The worst thing I can say about my grandma is that she lives too far away.  And by that, of course, I mean *I* live too far away.  She hasn't gone anywhere.  ;)

If my little Elizabeth grows up to have an ounce of the class, kindness, poise (or cooking ability) that my grandma does - I'll be thrilled.  I've very proud of my grandma and am very lucky to have someone like her in my life.

So what about Mae?  Mae is a name that was found on both sides of the family, so it was a relatively easy compromise in that respect.  By relatively easy, I mean Kyle and I didn't decide for sure about the middle name until I was 2 or 3 days overdue.  We had a lot of good options that we both liked a lot.  But, we'll keep those in our back pocket for any potential future use.  We were both happy with Mae.  I have a Mae on my side of the family, but Elizabeth was more directly named in honor of Kyle's mother, whose middle name used to be Mavis.  She changed her middle name when she got married, but we very much liked the idea of honoring her with the name as well.

So it worked.

And, of course, we think the world of Kyle's mom - everyone who knows her does.  I hope that little Elizabeth grows up to have a strong conviction in her own Faith, a heart half as big, and the super human inner strength that Kyle's mom possesses with so much grace.

Kyle and I - and Abby and Elizabeth - are so lucky to be surrounded by such strong women and namesakes.  We know we are blessed in this regard.

As for nicknames?  I absolutely think Elizabeth will have several.  It may be the most nickname-able name ever used.   We have not yet decided how we'd prefer to spell Lizzy/Lizzie or what other nicknames we may go with.  For now, we are calling her Elizabeth (or more often- baby Elizabeth) for Abby's sake.  We're trying to establish her as Elizabeth first and we will see what nicknames emerge with her personality.

I'll probably stay away from Lizardbreath as my sister used to fondly call as she chased me around the house.  ;)

So, that's the short(ish) version of how Elizabeth Mae was named.  And if you're wondering what our boy options were?  You'll just have to wait and see if we ever have one.  ;)  Kyle says to not hold your breath for that - he's pretty sure he's destined to be surrounded by girls his whole life.  The good thing is - he seems to be loving it so far.

coming home from the hospital