"What's in a name..."

Last week of the 2^nd trimester now.  Wow!  Home stretch time.  Aria is continuing to grow, kick and get all fattened up.  My cravings still consist of those darn egg rolls and anything sweet that I can get my hands on.  I will admit that I have been guilty of not eating so well these past couple weeks.  I indulge in cookies, candy and all things containing chocolate.  I will pretend my growing bump is ALL baby though. Lol.  Here it is at 27 weeks.

 

So we got dresser #2 yesterday and guess what?!  It was damaged too… *sigh*.  At least this one wasn’t as bad so they are sending replacement parts and hopefully we will be done dealing with this mess.  The parts are being delivered by the same service though so who knows if they can manage to get those here in one piece.  I’m trying to be patient but it’s hard.  3^rd times the charm though right? Fingers crossed.  Should get them by the end of the month.

Alright, so it’s time to give some good news AND also get a little sentimental.  We have officially chosen her middle name!  We have been bouncing back and forth between 2 different names and ultimately decided on this because of the “meaning” behind it.  Since I already told you how we came up with her first name in an earlier post, allow me to give you some insight into how we got this one.

About 4 years ago, I was lucky enough to travel to Utah to meet a few of Christian’s family members.  Among those were two very special women. 

 

One of them was Kay, Christian’s Grandmother (On the left in picture above).  So let’s start off by saying that she didn’t look like a grandmother.  She looked young, fashionable, and fun!  In the short time that I was there with her, she was full of kind acts of service and I come to find out, that’s how she always was.  She was the type of person that would go out of her way to fill a need.  Christian often tells me that some of his fondest memories were the annual birthday dates… which is probably true for most of her grandchildren.  She was optimistic and would see the inner beauty within people.  Truly, she was someone I instantly fell in love with when I met her.  Sadly, her life was cut short a few months later leaving a void in the lives of those who knew her.  One of those people being Christian’s mom, Carolee (On the right in the picture above).

Carolee was…. SO many things!  Beautiful, funny, loving, outspoken, spunky, service oriented, accepting, loyal and insightful.  Not to mention extremely unfiltered.  Sometimes to the point of irreverence.  There was never a dull moment with her.  Her laughs were soooo contagious!!  I remember her starting to tell us a story one day and she kept laughing so hard she couldn’t get it out.  Christian and I started laughing because of her laughing without even knowing the story yet.  5 minutes later, we were STILL laughing and still in the dark.  Apparently this was very common because Christian remembers many times his mom being on the phone laughing with someone and he would join in not even knowing what was being laughed at.  It was truly an infectious laugh.  I am blessed to have had the opportunity to spend more time with her when she moved to Houston and really get to meet the women that raised such an amazing man despite the trials that being a single mom brought on.  I would hear the most entertaining stories from her all the time.  But always she mentioned how proud she was that she was able to teach all the small children how to drink from straws.  She also was proud that she made her niece vacuum perfect lines in the carpet… “as it should be done.” (And FYI – Christian vacuums this way still.)  As we got to know each other, we realized we were pretty similar.  We enjoyed a lot of the same things and could talk about almost anything and share the same opinions.  We had funny times, serious times and sad times while she lived with us.  The saddest time being 3 years ago when she suddenly and unexpectedly passed away.  It was devastating to say the least.  The joy and laughter she brought with her was going to be missed and hard to replace.  We miss her every day but am so grateful that we will be with her again.

So now you know a little about these 2 women that we love so much, but unfortunately aren’t here to celebrate in the joy of our new family addition.  I know for sure Carolee would be just beside herself at this news.  She would have bought everything in sight for our little girl and be completely wrapped around her little finger.  She would also be purchasing straw cups getting ready for that big day! Haha! Anyway, we knew we wanted them to be a part of this new life event for us, so we thought of the perfect way.  A name!  Though it’s not much, it’s something that Aria will have with her for her entire life and can always know about the 2 women that played such an essential role of making her dad who he is.  The women that though she will never meet here on earth, will get to know through memories we have and will share with her. 

We merged both of their names together and came up with:

 

Aria Kaylee Eagleston

 “Kay” and “Lee” are two common names throughout both mine and Christian’s family so there is a lot of additional meaning behind them; however, the main influence behind “Kaylee” is Grandma Kay and Carolee.

I promise it wasn’t my intention to make anyone cry or get teary eyed with this post… including myself (as I sit here crying like a baby) but we chose names that have a meaning behind them and felt this one in particular was important to give detail on.

Still many things coming up.  Family pictures, 4D ultrasound and have I mentioned the baby shower? Haha!! But seriously… I want you there… so be there! J  Love you all and I am excited to know that you enjoy reading these as much as I like sharing.