everyone spell seven: sEVEn

It took us a long time to come up with a name for this little girl. We had names that we liked, but didn't feel like they were her. From the beginning I had a lot of rules for the name. I wanted it to have a y because the other girls do, Tony and I both wanted her middle name to be one syllable and kind of simple like the other girls, I wanted her first name to be two syllables, I didn't want her name to be too matchy with either Ayla or Tayvie but I wanted it to fit and flow with theirs. I wanted her to be named after Tony's side of our family this time. The funniest thing though, was I really felt like her name started with an L, but I didn't really like a lot of L names. All along, and I said this a million times, that I felt like there was a specific name for her I just hadn't found it yet.

In the beginning, we looked at family geneology names and nothing really jumped out at us. As the weeks went by between finding out she is a girl and our due date, we really had nothing. At one point Tony suggested Kalia and we really liked the name, but never thought it fit. I would panic and sit down at the computer and search name sites, I would search word lists even, I even searched a pet name website once. I was getting really frustraited, it was as if her name was on the tip of my tounge and I had clues about it, I really new it started with an L and I knew the feel of it, but I just couldn't say it.

Back in October as the leaves were changing we had gone on a ride up to Sundance and then back through the Alpine Loop. Right in the middle of the Alpine Loop we were discussing names from Tony's family. We talked about how he had two Great Grandma Eva's and his mom was named after one of them. We both said how we liked the name.

By the middle of November she still had no name. I sat down at the computer one last time. I was going to have a open, clear mind and not give up until I found her name. I wasn't on the computer long before something came to me, but it wasn't from a website. I had been looking at names, and I don't know what triggered it, but in my head I could hear a familiar voice saying "Lindley." I have to laugh cause that makes it sound all miraculous, like it was the voice of an angel -and it was far from that! It was actually the voice of a charater from a teen drama I use to watch about ten years ago, one of the other character's last names was Lindley and I could hear him saying her name. It took me a minute to place it, but I figured it out.

So when Tony came home I suggested it and there was no discussion on his end. He loved it. That was her name. The end for him. Me? I went back and forth. I came up with any negative I could think of and asked him what he thought but he was completely adamant that Lindley was her name. We also talked about her middle name at the time, in my mind I had already gone back to that day on the Alpine Loop and like the name Eve but Tony is the one who spoke it out loud. When he said what I had been thinking, there wasn't much discussion about it at the time cause I knew it was ment to be. The odd thing was we had never actually discussed Eve rather than Eva.

So, even though I was still testing it out and going back and forth, we had decided that was her name. Now we were just down to the spelling. We decided right away that we would spell the first part of it with a y, because Tony's mom's name is Evelyn (who was named after one of the grandma Eva's), so we thought it would be neat to use the Lyn from her name and then her Eve for the middle name. Neat that she would have her grandmother's whole name in her name, we really liked that. We did struggle with the spelling at the end of her name though, in fact we discussed it on our drive to the hospital the morning she was born and were no closer to having a decision. The decision was made at the hospital when Tony wrote it down on the form. He had asked me one last time what I thought and I said "I don't know, but we don't have to make a decision right now, we can leave it blank and fill it in later." When I came back from dressing in my hospital gown he had informed me that he had chosen to spell it Lyndlee. I was very happy with his decision and thought it was cute that he had decided himself. One reason I really liked the lee spelling was because I've had a wonderful friend my whole life who's middle name is Lee and she just had a baby girl who's middle name is Mae (just like mine), so now we have baby girls that share each other's middle names. Also, we both agreed that the spelling of our nurses name was a sign: Carolee.

I know this is a looooong background for her name, but it was a looooong nine months and a loooooong process to come up with her name. To be honest, I am just now getting comfortable with it, not that I haven't felt that it is her name, it's just taken me a while to get comfortable with it. But today I love it. I remember this same feeling with Tayvie's name, I finally had that day that I just absolutely loved it.

Now for my FAVORITE part: I love things to have meaning. I love when coincidences happen too. I love things to match.

• Lyndlee Eve was born on December, 7th- now everybody spell seven: sEVEn. The coolest thing ever!
• Also if we want to stretch it a bit (and we do) she was born at quarter to 11- now everybody spell eleven: el-EVE-n.
• Since she was born in December we wanted to put something holiday-ish in her name but we didn't want it to be blatant and nothing was more perfect than Eve. It's a holiday word, and to me the word eve means excitement for things that are coming. I like to think since she was born in December which is the eve of a new and better year for us. She was sometimes our only joy and hope through 2009 and she brought that excitement of looking forward to the end of the year with her birth. Eve is very magical.
• Most importantly being the people she was named after. I love my children to have a special connection, I think it gives a deeper meaning to who they are. And Lyndlee has her grandmother in her name and my forever friend to look up to.
• I also like to think our kids our named after us in a little way, because Ayla starts with the A from Anthony, Tayvie starts with the T from Tony and Lyndlee starts with the L from Lacie.
• And one last thing, Ayla has insisted all along that her name is Lyndlee Rainbow or sometimes Lyndlee Rainbow Eve. One day before Lyndlee was born she said to me "Mama, I'm getting riddy of Eve, because Eve kinda annoys me." and everytime someone says Lyndlee Eve she corrects them immediately with "Rainbow, Lyndlee Rainbow." Coincidence, that she is wearing rainbow butterfly wings above?