what's in a name?

Since a couple of people asked about Louisa's name (and since I think it will be nice for her to have a written documentation from her mother about how we came up with it) here's a post about how we came to name her Louisa Ada.

I always knew that when I had a daughter, her middle name would be Ada. My middle name, my mother's middle name, my grandmother's first name and her grandmother's first name were all Ada. The first being Ada Elizabeth who immigrated to America from England. My mom had six daughters before she had me and decided to use the name. It's always been really special to me and I'm so glad I am able to pass it on to the next generation.

Louisa (we say it with a soft "s" like in The Sound of Music) is my dad's grandmother's name, though it was technically Harriett Louisa. We love using family names and all of our children's names are part of our history which is special to us.

Baby Louisa is one week old and she is delightful. She has perfectly kissable, chubby cheeks and the softest, fuzzy baby duckling hair. So far she has been an easy baby - eating well and packing on extra chub. William remains ever obsessed with her and kisses her about 20 times a day. Fritz is starting to act slightly more interested and asks to "pet him". It's very cute and I can't believe how big he suddenly is. He talks constantly and when I hold him on my lap, he feels like he's doubled in size. These Bryant children are growing much too quickly!!!