What's in a name

I'm a mess but I am too much in love to care! The most beautiful baby hat made by Melissa. Baby F is growing into it! You can see it here.
I have felt so spoiled the past couple of weeks. Kevin has been home on paternity leave, taking on all of my responsibilities as well as his own. Our midwives came to our home for my and Baby F's first check ups, followed by the most wonderful lactation consultant later in the week (she is friends with one of the original founders of Portland Waldorf School back home - how funny!). Each visit Baby F was weighed and I am happy to say he has done nothing but plump up! You can actually even see it in his face in the photographs above. They were taken over the course of a few days after his birth.

Thank you for all of your comments and messages about his name -  I love his name too, but I might be partial. I thought I would shed some light on why we chose it (including a first for us - two middle names!).

I wanted him to be named after a saint (like his big brother), and an Irish saint would be even better. Then I stumbled upon St. Finnian of Clonard. The more I read about him the more I admired him.
He was the "Teacher of the Irish Saints" including the twelve apostles of Ireland and is known as the traditional founder of the monastic movement in Ireland. According to some sources, Finnian studied for a time at the monastic center of Martin of Tours in Gaul. Tours was noted for its austerity. As you may know, Saint Martin of Tours (who the center was named after) holds a special place in our hearts - we celebrate his feast day with our yearly lantern walk. That pretty much sealed the deal for me. I knew St. Finnian was just who he should be named after. Kevin really liked the name, too. It's normally not that easy for us to find a name we both really like right away so I took that as a sign. Little L was disappointed at first because he wanted him to be named "Shark" but then he decided he liked the name Finnian because it reminded him of shark fins. He started calling him Shark Finnian (and he still does).

His middle name means "Of the forest." We are a family that lives, breathes and thrives in the PNW coniferous forests. I know he will follow in our footsteps and love the serenity, beauty, and adventure that the woods offer. His name is also a promise to ourselves to return to the land we so love.

And then finally we come to his second middle name. Kevin and I couldn't decide between the two middle names so we just went with both. My friend Christel pointed out that two middle names is a German tradition so if anyone asks we'll say we did that intentionally. Hehe. His second middle name means "blessing" which definitely describes him. Kevin loves the name because of one of his heroes - Daniel Boone. So the name is a win-win. Kevin has been reading some of his Daniel Boone books to our sweet baby as he sleeps. Such endearing moments.

I shall have to end this here as I hear my little forest boy calling for me. Time for sleep...hopefully!

Oh and I forgot to mention it in my birth story post - the very first thing L said when he came into the room to meet his new little brother was, "Now I can sit in your lap again, Mama!".

What's in a name