Rowan

Noodle,

So I had a wonderful day today as you might know, since you were there! Started off to a bit of a bumpy start, as I got my blood drawn...but I was brave once again and your Dad was there with me holding my hand. Afterwards your Auntie Tammany came over and treated me to yummy taco lunch. We talked about you and life and the future. You are coming into a world in which so many people already love you so very much and right now you don't even have eyes or feet! I can't express what great appreciation and astonishment I have for the people I love and who love me and you and Chris. We are very lucky.

After lunch we got our short toenails painted in French style, and our feet felt like glowing orbs of goodness propelling us onward and out. Then Uncle Andrew and I got some used movies and Daddy came home and we watched "Knocked Up" while eating steak calzone. He ever brought me coffee ice cream and m&ms as I had a random craving for it (though it passed and remains untouched in the freezer). I have to say I was already the type to get emotional in movies in which babies are born at the climatic moment; but I was super emotional today watching it because that is going to be a reality in less than a year. As I told Daddy today, "the baby is going to be matter: it is going to have mass and take up space." I think he was proud of my science knowledge. :)

So, Chris has a headache and is asleep beside me as I type this. Before we went to bed we again talked about your name if you are a boy. We both like Jonah but think we can do better. So I went to a baby name generator in which you put in your middle and last name and it randomly gives you options. Well, Rowan came up and I have LOVED LOVED LOVED that name for years and years (OK I will admit it, I first heard it in 2003 when Brooke Shields named her daughter that and fell in love with it despite typically hating celebrity baby names!) But I remembered when Chris and I first discussed the kid's names we liked back in 2006 and I had mentioned Rowan and he was tepid about it so I just put it to the wayside and agreed on Jonah. Well today he was like "Oh I really like that name; there was a King Rowan in a fantasy book I loved as a kid!" So we looked it up and the Rowan Tree has all sorts of mystical associations with magic and pagans and wizards. Also, I think I might remember a conversation I had with my sister back when Chris and I first met. She said that she had had a dream that I had had a baby boy named Rowan. And I was so excited because I loved the name! So it seems sort of eerily predestined. It is a lot different from Jonah, which is neat and all but has so much of a biblical history that it made us both a little uncomfortable. Plus is it an Irish name which matches my Irish dancing feet. So I think we have officially changed your name (if you are a boy), to Rowan. We think it is equal parts nerd and equal parts badass magician. Hope you like it.

Oh oh oh: I just ran a Gmail search and found a few references to "Rowan" I had made in the past!

Chat with Chris, 6/2006:I love the names Rainey, Rowan, and Rory!!!
To Chris's mom the first time we talked about names we liked on 8/16/06:
I'm a fan of R names, like Rainey, Rory, Reagen, Rowan

11/25/06
Courtney: I had a dream about you giving birth to a baby boy (that you named Rowan) this past Monday. I was sad because you hadn't told me you were pregnant until you called me to the hospital to tell me you were delivering a baby. Rowan came out and was gorgeous. He had black hair and ice blue eyes and even though he was a newborn, he studied our faces like a grown man.

Kelly: While i LOVE the name Rowan, our baby is definitely going to have blonde hair and blue eyes. i mean i guess there could be a recessive gene in there from mom. but i have green eye and blone-ish hair, chris parents both have huge blue eyes and blue hair and same goes for chris. but who knows right?

haha. like the "blue hair" typo? I meant blonde! Maybe you will have dark hair at birth? Creepy but cool! As you can see I have always been obsessed with names! You should have seen me with the cats...it took me days of obsessing to name them. Yes, I'm a word nerd. See the boy name has always been Rowan, it just took your Dad a while to figure that out. Hopefully this one sticks and we don't change our minds! I think it has a fighting chance...Kisses and goodnight.