Dear baby updates

Dear baby

Baby Girl Atkinson Has A Name

*****Warning: this is long and wordy! So if you just want the name, no story attached, jump to the photo ending!*****

Picking a baby name is like picking your favorite restaurant or food. As soon as you think you know your favorite, you over use it for a week or two and hate it (at least for a little while).

Maybe you don't have this problem but I sure do. From the time I was dragging around baby dolls I was giving them my "all time favorite" baby names that I thought one day I would use.....until I was pregnant with Liam and realized I hated them....all of them. 

So from the minute we picked Liam's name, Brian and I decided our children's names would require two things: a heritage name from a family member and a name with a meaning.

Example: when we chose Liam's name we wanted a name that had a meaning that would foreshadow his life. So we chose "Liam" meaning Strong and Brave. Everyday of his life he has shown this to be true of himself. We know this name was put on our hearts for a reason, and from the moment we found out about his vision we have noticed that he is completely these two things. Nothing, vision included, will defeat, slow, or hinder him- of this we are sure. (So when we call him LiamtheBrave we mean it!)

Liam's middle name, his inherited name, is "Robert" which is my father's first name (though he goes by Bobby). I could list a dozen reasons to why we picked my dad to name Liam after, but I would be rambling for a while so I will leave it at this- girls look up to their dads. (And so do the son-in-laws that get the permission to marry said daughter.)

Jump to present day.

From the moment we got pregnant for the fourth time, we just KNEW this baby would be a boy. 

The only reason being this: 

One day we sat in our kitchen discussing the chances of having a third miscarriage if we tried again to get pregnant. I remember telling Brian I wanted to wait until after Christmas to even discuss trying again. He jokingly said, "why? It would be a cool Christmas present." And I told him it would have to be a "gift from God" because I wasn't up for it. We laughed and joked about how funny that would be and then on a whim I googled baby name meanings meaning "gift from God" or "God's gift". Turned out the first one I found was Hebrew and I loved it! Better still, Brian loved it. 

A few weeks later we were staring at our 4th positive pregnancy test, and two days before Christmas we were listening to our baby's heartbeat.  Christmas baby announcement it was! 

Skip forward a few short months- our announcement and shock that this was not a baby boy but a little girl. All I could think was, "BUT our name!!! It was perfect!" 

And it still is.... Just not for this baby- which is why I'm not including it in this post ;) 

After we wrapped our brains around this new information, we started to discuss girl names. Both of us came to the same conclusion: THIS baby, this GIRL baby, is still just that perfect meaning-"God's gift".

So we found Jane. It took some convincing because at first Brian hated it, but I kept on. We struggled to try and name her middle name after my sisters, but we came up with more problems than solutions. 

So one day on my way to work, I pulled up a list of my family tree and zeroed in on the female names. I not only found that "Jane" was actually an inherited name, but I also found the name "Ella". 

Mary-Ella, called Ella, was my Nana's grandmother. She was my dad's greatnana. 

 I called Brian and this is (give or take) our quick discussion on it:

Me: "did you know that Jane is our name meaning name and an inherited name? So we can technically pick whatever we like to go with it!"

Brian: "Cool but what goes good with it?"

Me: "Well, I found Ella.... I kinda like Jane Ella."

Silence.

Me: "Babe?"

Brian: "I hate it.... But I like Ella Jane. What does it mean?"

Quick google search....

Me: "You won't believe this... It means "all or completely/utterly".

Brian: "So if we use it as Ella Jane instead of Jane Ella, together her name would mean "Completely A gift from God"?" 

And that was that. We both loved it and there was no other name it could possibly be. Two meaning names, two inherited names. The perfect combo for our little girl. 

So (now that I've drug this out long enough) the secrets out! Our sweet daughter's name will be..........

Dear Baby

I keep forgetting to post these weekly so here's a few to catch up (minus a few that I forgot). I love the idea of seeing weekly growth but I wanted a unique way to do it other than just in pictures. Since I've periodically written letters to Liam, when I saw this idea on Pinterest I fell in love with it and decided to give it a try. 

That One Weekend When Nobody Showered

Yes I said it…NOBODY showered; not Brian or Liam nor I showered the entire.weekend.long.
It also should be called:

The weekend we thought Liam had the plague, then the flu, but it turned out just to be hand-foot-and mouth.
The weekend we were quarantined inside our home with worse cabin fever than a hunter in the middle of winter hyped up on red bull.
The weekend we ran through all of our dishes and laundry before we stopped to do a load.
The weekend we watched Croods twice, Lady and the Tramp four times, and Veggie Tales once because Liam couldn’t get off the couch.
The weekend the couch was never more than two feet away from a puke bucket.

The weekend we sat covered in germs and stink next to Liam on the couch because he begged for us to just hold him, hold his hand, hold his cup, hold his roo-roo—both of us to hold him---and we did without moving, without a grudge, and without showers.

Let me tell you it was worth it. And so was using the entire can of Lysol and the entire water tank of hot water Sunday night.

Sometimes little superheroes just need to be held.

Writers Gotta Read

I’m not going to lie, I have been such a slacker lately. I have been too busy to write, too busy to read and too busy to stop and breathe. That is all about to change.
I took a new, totally amazing, totally rewarding, totally WORTH IT  job back in August this year, and we have been trying to perfect our family schedule ever since then. The new job gives me mornings with Liam when Brian is working and then time with the both of them in the evenings after 6 pm, but there is no time for “me” time. I used to write in the mornings after Brian took Liam to work and then have my alone time with Liam in the evenings from 4-6pm before Brian got home but not anymore.  Now my mornings are filled with giggles and tickles, fixing breakfast and packing lunches, and occasionally sleeping in with my snuggle bug Liam.
I WOULD NOT, WILL NOT, CHANGE THEM.
So where is the time to write and paint and read?

When I started the new job and started coming home after 6 pm to dinner on the table, followed by bath time then reading time, then brush teeth and bed time---well there was no time left. 
I sit here now writing only because my little blonde bear has a horrible virus/plague and has spent the past three days napping on the sofa. Soon though he will be back to his normal bouncy self and then we will be back to the normal schedule.

So as I explained to Brian in so many words, “if I do not write I do not function” and he looked at me with those “I don’t understand but I will fix it” eyes…..a plan developed. I will deliver Liam early to our sitter once a week before work and have an hour to write then as well as turning off the TV one night a week for BOTH of us to write, read or whatever. A mandatory no TV night.

Hallelujah.

Since I believe with everything in me that writers have to be readers, I have been looking for books to motivate and move me, or just make me enjoy the read, and I have developed my LIST. (Queen of lists right here.)

Like any good list, it is primed and ready for expansion; so I am willing to hear input as well but what I have so far is this:

Eleanor & Park—by Rainbow Rowell
The Book Thief – by Markus Zusak
How to Raise Selfless Kids in a Self-Centered World—by Dave Stone
Give Them Grace—by Elyse M Fitspatrick and Jessica Thompson
Radical—by David Platt

So here’s to the love of books, both writing and reading alike!

Winners!

Our two winners were Renee and Manda! Thanks to all those who pinned, posted, and shared! Soon we may pair with Blue Lizard to do a mega sunscreen giveaway so if you didn't win don't give up! To the winners please email me your shipping address via the email listed on our contacts tab, and thanks so much for participating!