It’s one thing to name a child. It’s another thing to hear it, say it and read it for the first few days of their life. While checking in at Beatrice’s one week appointment yesterday afternoon, I wrote out her name for the first time (aside from practicing it a couple times prior to her birth). Chills ran through me while I registered at the front desk. Of course, I have typed her name a thousand times on emails over the past week but writing it out was completely different.  There was weight to the pen, meaning in the ink. It felt real. I thought of all the future times I will be writing her name…birthday invitations, school registrations, labels on shirts headed to camp. But this was the first written name and it felt so right.

A few other written highlights from the week…

 Whiteboard at HCMC

Emmett’s letter clouds which guided me through labor

Cue cards for breathing!! (used a few different techniques this time around)

Homemade ‘Welcome Home’ sign from Azaya & Zada

Our friend Vicki took the boys’ ‘Baby Bea’ handwriting and stitched it onto a pillow

And traced their hands for the front of the pillow. Such talent.

 Greetings from 5-year-old Marie

 

 Creative Aunt Wendy’s “Queen Beatrice”

7-year-old Frances’s card to Cupcake (Beatrice’s nickname)

Neighbor Anna’s greetings to Bea

First card from Grandma Sally & Jim

One Week appointment card from the Pediatricians

And so it begins, the written name. Tomorrow she will be writing her name all by herself, or so it will feel as time swiftly passes by.