Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Baby What's-her-face

So I've been shopping like a mad person for baby things so we can have them shipped to this rock we live on at the end of October. If things go well we should have our baby gear sometime before February, lol. Getting on and off this island is ridiculously hard, especially as the winter approaches.

I've been pinteresting like crazy beautiful nurseries to emulate for our baby girl. We found out she was a girl a few weeks ago, and it has made baby shopping infinitely more fun. I don't want an over the top girlie space, but I do want something lovely, airy and whimsical. My favorite room so far can be found on OhDeeDoh.





We've been struggling with naming this little creature. We've narrowed it down to nine possibilities and I've printed them out in large fonts and taped them next to the computer where my husband and I spend most of our time. I'm hoping that over time one of the names will be more appealing than the others. We're drawing our name choices from family members we love, with a few names completely unrelated to us that we just happen to love.

Danny and I do buck heads over a couple choices. He loves Clara which somehow reminds me of a cartoon cow from old Disney cartoons.



But we have a habit of naming things based on the places we live (our dog is Kirby because we lived off of Kirby Drive), and Clara suits the little town she will be born in, Clarenville. Clara also has a ready-made nickname because the town is obsessed with their minor hockey team the caribous, so it's not a far jump from caribou to Clarabou. My mom says it's wrong of us to nickname a kid that way, although I don't see the harm. It's not like she'll be called Clarabou in high school, and what about all the ridiculous nicknames I had as a kid drawing from my middle name Rebekah: D-becka, Shib-becka, Shibs, Beckyboo, Becks, etc., etc. Nicknames happen no matter what.

I happen to love Stella because it reminds me of my great grandmother and I know it would mean a lot to my dad, but Danny isn't a fan. He doesn't have a specific reason for disliking the name (no cartoon character associations), but he clearly wants something else.

We've been throwing some Spanish names in the mix, too, but only as middle names so that people who can't roll their r's aren't destroying it.

It's tricky business, this naming stuff.

As a reading teacher, I was often appalled by the spelling choices of the names some of my kids had. It was no wonder they couldn't master phonics when their names were not phonetically correct. And then as a behavior interventionist, I couldn't help thinking that maybe if a kid named Demon had started with a different name, his life would take a slightly better trajectory.

People get a little crazy with this naming process. But I think this kitchen counter narrowing down method is a lot saner and cheaper than calling in focus groups to help us decide.

Time to go feed myself and baby What's-her-face.

2 comments:

Starr said...

Too bad, I love the name Stella! Stella is the Spanish and Italian form of Starr. :) Clara is ok, but I love her nickname Clarabou! Either way you will have a gorgeous child with a great name. PS. I saw that episode of Pregnant in Heels. You guys are a choosing a much saner way to name your little peanut.

Jayme said...

Thanks Starr! :)