Baby Names

When I was younger, I must say I had really...unique...taste in baby names. When Jake and I met, I wanted to name my daughter Azuraye, and my son Carrick. These ARE real names, mind you. Usually I catch strange and unique names in the most unlikely of situations, like reading names of crew members in movies...the little people behind the scenes. Oh yeah, they have some interesting names.

When Jake and I discussed baby names, we had two names for each gender picked out. We knew there might be a time where we would possibly face twins, so we wanted to be prepared. Of course of the two names each, we had a top pick.

For boys, in order of preference, we had Gabriel Marks and Abram Daniel.

Gabriel was a name I've always liked, as Jake did as well. Marks is my father's middle name.

Abram was the original Hebrew pronunciation of Abraham from the Bible. Daniel is Jake's middle name as it is also his grandfather's first name.

For girls, we had Scarlett Leigh and Avery Mariah.

Avery was just a name Jake and I liked. Mariah is my great-grandmother's middle name.

Now for the name we chose...Scarlett Leigh.

When people hear the name Scarlett, they automatically say "like Scarlett O'Hara?" Well...yes, actually. Let me explain.

When I was little, I grew up on classic black and white movies: Rebecca, Jane Eyre (with Olivia DeHallivand and Orson Wells), Gaslight, old Shirley Temple movies, and (though not black and white) Gone With the Wind. When I was young, I loved the big beautiful dresses and the grandeur of the cinematography. I was always a fan.

When I got older, I always loved Gone With the Wind. When the movie came out in an anniversary edition, I had to have it. I watched it over and over, and fell in love with it all over again. Most people would say that Scarlett O'Hara is a selfish, mean-spirited, bitter girl who turns into a hateful person as she grows. I disagree. Scarlett is fiery (she IS Irish afterall), she's determined, ambitious, smart, and never gives up. She rebuilds her family's almost torn down plantation (due to the Civil War) to it's (almost) former glory when everyone else is accusing her of horrible things like cheating on her husband. She beats the odds and becomes a powerful person. Sure she starts out as naive and yes, even a bit selfish, but when everyone else is calling her "hateful" (like her own sister), she presses on and refuses to let down. I love it.

I find Scarlett O'Hara to be one of the brightest and most wonderful females written for the English language. She's a strong woman. That is something I would love my daughter to aspire to be. Smart, determined, unwavering in what she wants.

Leigh is her middle name, after my cousin, Megan. Megan is not much different than Scarlett herself. Megan refused to give up after some really tough trials in life. She's smart, determined and an admirable person. She does whatever she can for her family no matter who says what. She's one of my best friends. She and I have (of course) had our differences in the past, but one thing has always remained the same...we love each other. Sure we're family, but I consider myself lucky to have family such as her. No matter her opinion of people's actions (and Lord knows I have been on the receiving end in my day), she appreciates the person and not the action. Believe me, I speak from experience.

So that's how we came to choose our daughter's name. Scarlett Leigh...and I can't wait to see our wonderful little girl grow up before our eyes and become a beautiful woman.

Nursery Progress

I've been wanting to hold off on posting pictures of Scarlett's room until it was finished, but I've had an overwhelming amount of requests for updated pictures of progress so far. I'll keep everyone in the loop as things go by.

So, this is what Scarlett's room looked like before anything was moved out:

Note the pile of baby gear and clothes we've accumulated so far? Half is on the left of the armoire, the rest is on the far right next to the (broken) wind/fan tower. This was out guest room. One person has slept here since we've moved and it happens to be the 2nd out of town person we've had sleep over since Jake and I moved in together in 2005.

Here's the side view (aka, the futon)

We decided we wanted to paint her room, but what color? We picked this bedding from Pottery Barn Kids, which has many colors to choose from, but we mainly wanted a nice girly yet multi-functional color that would be appropriate as she grows. So we chose to go with a light yellow.

So we chose originally to go with Buttercup by Glidden. We had purchased a small tester jar with the brush and kept it on the wall for about a week. We decided we liked it and purchased the paint.

Here's the sticky part: Jake began painting and I had to stop him. It was the most OBNOXIOUS color. I had him look at it from across the room, and as soon as he did, he cringed. Back to the drawing board. We had brought home a few different swatch cards from Home Depot and taped them to the wall. We had opened the curtains and the windows full blast to let in the natural light. Then we closed all the windows and curtains and turned the light on to see what it would look like with artificial light. We ended up choosing Frosted Lemon by Behr. The Glidden was on sale and pretty cheap so we weren't out too much moolah.

So, we started and I'm beyond happy with the result. The yellow is a subtle yellow without being so "in your face" like the other was. We finished last night and I love it! I can't wait to see her room all finished.

The wall on the left is where her dresser will go (where the armoire was). The glider will go kind of in front of the window.

Her crib and a bookcase will go on the right wall. (Where the futon was)

Weekly video 1/21/11

There is a series of BBC shows called Walk on the Wild Side. Essentially what they do is take snippets of shows like Earth or Blue Planet and use English comedians to make commentary for the animals. The results are HILARIOUS!

Here's my favorite video. I'm sure I'll share more in the future as there are many videos and all of them have a moment where I'm laughing so hard I'm crying.

Enjoy!

Three

This post is brought to you by the number 3...3 months that is.



Today is the 16th of January which makes 3 months until my due date. Yesterday marked 27 weeks, which in the pregnancy world, doesn't necessarily add up to the "9 months" women are generally pregnant, so I'm going by month.



We've begun setting up Scarlett's nursery. We've been ho-humminh between two paint samples in a light yellow color. Her crib is ordered and will be here between February and April 1st, which is too broad a timeline for me, but I have no choice. :) We've moved our futon out of her room and into the office. Her collection of clothes is slowly growing and I'm thinking I'll have to purchase some Dreft soon, but am holding off until we get her dresser which is being purchased from Ikea soon. The bedding we chose was ordered and delivered to my very gracious and caring aunt who is holding onto it for me until our shower. I'm on the hunt for letters to spell out her name, which has been a challenge so far, but I'm determined to find what I want.



When I'm sitting on the couch or in bed watching TV, I feel so close to her. I feel those are the times where I can actually take a moment and enjoy her movements. I'm getting so used to them that now when she kicks or moves, it makes me laugh rather than stop and say "WTF?". She responds so much when Jake talks to her, it's really extraordinary to see their relationship develop right in front of me. He loves her so much already, it's so sweet to see him speak to her.

Time is slipping by so fast these days, it's hard to believe we're so close to meeting her. I know time will only go by faster from now on, but I still am looking forward to seeing our little girl.

26 weeks!

Sorry that this is a little late, but I've been busy.

Here I am...

Kitty Love

I'm making a resolution to show more love on my blog for our three cats Neebs, MJ and Chloe. They've been having some really cute moments lately and I (finally) charged my camera to take some shots. Of course, most of them are of the cats sleeping.

This was Chloe on Saturday night. I was watching TV in the bedroom and she cuddled up next to me and fell asleep (of course, she's peeking in this picture). Of course, this is her usual spot every night.

Neebs is on the Left, MJ on the Right. Jake found them napping like this on our recliner in the living room. Yes, the recliner is fully reclined and that's MJ sleeping on the back portion.