What's in a name?

Choosing a name for your child isn't easy-for us it wasn't anyway.  As soon as we found out we were expecting we began talking about names and didn't finalize one (two actually since we needed a boy and a girls name) until we were on the way to the hospital.

We wanted to choose a name that had meaning to us and that we loved hoping she would too!  We wanted to avoid those 'trendy' names like Makenzie, Madison, Olivia, etc. (not trying to offend anyone who's child has those names-honestly a lot of them I love-we just didn't want our kid to be one of 10 Ava's or Olivia's in her class).  ***OK OK I know what you are thinking-Lilly is one of those names...well it kind of is but her NAME is Lillian with Lilly as her nickname so it doesn't count!?***  We also wanted to avoid names that sounded made up or was a name of a so and so that we hated in high school.  Our goal when naming our child was to give her a name that meant something to us and her and our family.  We were fairly secretive with the names although we shared a little bit of what we were thinking.  Because everyone always wants to put their two cents in regarding how BIG you are, how you should raise your child, etc. etc. we didn't feel like adding "Oh you're using THAT name" to the mix.  We figured people couldn't say anything once the baby was here and already named (and if they did we would pop them one!)-so we kept it on the DL. 

Both Tommy and I have names that have a lot of meaning to us and our families.  Tommy's first name-Thomas-meaning twin in Hebrew-is his dad's name so of course there is so much meaning already there.  Tommy's middle name, Norval, was his paternal grandfathers name and while Tommy used to pretend the N stood for Nicholas, I know how much the name means to him and his family which makes it great!  

I have always been particularly proud of my name.  Many people go through phases or spend their whole lives hating their name but I've always loved mine.  I did go through a phase (after watching Beaches) where I wanted my name to be Hillary but I still never hated Kelly.  Kelly is Irish (wahoo!) and means warrior woman-I love that.  It's funny because now when you search the meaning of Kelly it's listed as: war, bright headed-still pretty cool.  Kelly is also my aunt's (my mom's sister) name.  Not sure if the name has anything to do with it but I've always thought that my aunt and I have a lot in common-we love books and love to read, we both talk super fast, and we both have tons of energy.  I have so many fond memories with my Aunt Kelly!

My middle name was is Elaine after my mom and grandmother.  I've always loved that name as well.  When I got married I took Reese as my middle name so legally I am Kelly Reese Smith, but I will still always be Kelly Elaine too!  I did feel that I had to keep Reese somewhere in my name since growing up I was always known as Kelly Reese by my aunts, uncles, and cousins-I guess to differentiate from my Aunt Kelly.  I hope to use the name Elaine or some form of it if we have another girl some where down the road.

So when thinking of what to name our baby-boy or girl-choosing a name with meaning was important to us.  When we found out we had a little girl we chose Lillian Grace or Lilly or Lilly Grace-call her what you like just make sure you spell it Lilly not Lily-she's a person not a flower-well and mainly because Lillian has two l's so we also wanted Lilly to have two as well.  Not only is it a classic name and (we think) very beautiful, it is also Tommy's paternal grandmothers name. Lillian Patricia Smith was born on Saint Patrick's day-Lilly's due date.  Funny thing we learned after the fact was that her grandmother (Tommy's great great grandmother) was also named Lillian and she was a Smith too!!!  So Lilly Grace is the third Lillian Smith in the family.  How neat!  I love things with stories behind it and having a story behind Lillian's name means so much to us.

We also wanted to pay homage to my side of the family which is how her middle name came about.  We played with Grace (Gracie) as a first name too because we love the name (it's also Dave Matthew's daughters name).  I LOVED the name also because of the history behind it.  Grace O'Malley (Granuaile) was an Irish pirate who had dealings with Queen Elizabeth I.  She was a pretty cool bad ass lady and I've read many books about her.  As you may (or may not) know my mom was an O'Malley and my grandfather has done extensive research on our family genealogy and guess what-we're related to the notorious Irish 'pirate'.  How cool.  So in a round a bout way Grace is paying homage to my O'Malley Irish roots and I like to think will instill in Lillian a little bit of that Irish fire that we all have.  The name Grace means blessing and what a blessing she is!

So if one day Lillian decides she doesn't like her name-hopefully she will be able to realize that we put a lot of thought into her name and that it has so much meaning to us.  Perhaps that will provide her with an appreciation with where she comes from and that why we didn't just pick the name of the year for her.  I think she will love her name though just as much as we do.

Today Lillian Grace is 3 weeks!  It's amazing to already see signs of development in her.  She's been an alert little thing since she was born but now she's beginning to really seem to notice her surroundings as well as recognize Tommy and I more.  Her face already has changed from that newborn look and I still cannot tell if she looks more like me or Tommy.  My thoughts change on that every time I look at her.  She's definitely growing as overnight it seems she's gone from newborn size to 3 months size.  I was horrified one day to find that she wasn't able to stretch out in her newborn sleepers-am I a bad mom for letting her wear too small for her clothes!?  Well I thought 3 months clothing looked huge but now as of today magically they fit!!  Some brands are still a bit large on her but she's officially out of newborn sizes whereas last week she had just outgrown a few.  Good thing we didn't buy a lot of newborn clothing!  I am excited because she has so many CUTE outfits to wear for the spring!  Instead of wondering what I am going to wear each day-I now wonder what Lilly is going to wear!  My how things have changed.  Currently we are debating outfit choices for her visit with the Easter Bunny this evening and her visit with her Aunt Theresa and Caroline and Julia on Saturday.

Lilly is also loving her tummy time and holds her head up VERY well for extended periods of time.  She's been on walks in the carrier and her stroller now that the weather is getting nicer.  She even took a trip to cousin Katie and Emily school with Aunt Baba and cousin Kelly to pick them up (please note we walked and were outside-she did not go into a germ infested elementary school).  She's starting to love outings and zonks out as soon as she's in the car-she loves car rides.  Me being that first time mom went to Babies R Us yesterday and bought sun shades so now both side windows and rear windows are covered-the one shade even has the Baby on Board sign which I thought I would never want on/in my car but I was happy it had it.  People better watch out-my baby is in the car!  Also to eliminate my need to take off my seat belt to turn around to check on her at red lights while I am driving by myself I bought a mirror that suctions to the rear window so now when I look in my rear view mirror I can see how she's doing!  Yes, I know-I am a crazy person!  OMG am I becoming a helicopter parent.  I promise Lilly it's only because you are a newborn and I am new at this whole thing-I won't be filling out your college applications and writing your essays for you-I SWEAR!  (Will I be eating these words later-gosh I hope not).  I will begin working on that now Lillian Grace.

Lilly didn't have too many visitors this week but she did get to visit Daddy's work and Auntie Em and Katie S. came to visit with us.  Aunt Robyn will be coming tonight and as I mentioned earlier Aunt Theresa, Caroline, and Julia will be coming tomorrow.  We are so excited!  Lilly also will be attending her first Smith pizza night tonight!

So enough babbling as I am sure all you readers really just want to see her picture.  Here is Lilly Grace at 3 weeks!

 I swear she gets cuter everyday!