A Rose By Any Other Name...

We've read a children's book by Kevin Henkes many times. In the book a little mouse is named Chrysanthemum by her parents. Here is an excerpt from the book:
"'Her name must be everything she is,' said her mother.
'Her name must be absolutely perfect,' said her father.
And it was."

After much deliberation, we've finally chosen a perfect name for our perfect little girl:

Kara Lisette

Kara means: pure; sweet melodie; dear one

and

Lisette means: God's promise; devoted to God

We're so excited to have officially chosen a name (though we've called her "baby" for so long that I still have a tendency to call her "baby"... maybe that will be her nickname :))

As of right now (12:50 p.m. Monday) she is five days old, but it seems like she's been a part of our family forever.

She sleeps beautifully during the day and pretty good at night... that is, after I moved her to her own room. I lasted exactly two nights at home with her in the pack-n-play beside our bed. I would feed her then lay her down. She'd be quiet for about five minutes then start squeaking, then start fussing. Now that she's in her own bedroom I can feed her in there without disturbing Eric (man our Love Sac (a huge beanbag) is so comfortable in the middle of the night), lay her down and she goes right back to sleep. Last night, which was her first all-nighter in her own bed she woke up twice to eat... which is expected.

Yesterday I took some pictures of her, though I had a lot of help from the kids, so our "session" didn't last very long. Here's my favorite:

Some have commented that she's looking more like Elia... I really can't tell, but Elia sure loves her. Eric commented yesterday that Elia has held Kara more than he has! Getting the three of them together was tricky. They aren't the greatest pictures, (there is something about jostling a baby that wakes her out of her quiet slumber) but at least in these two pics Ethan isn't leaning away from Kara!Ethan has been very interesting. He's sort of indifferent about her, though he likes watching her, when you ask him if he wants to kiss or hold her he says, "no". I'm trying really hard to give both he and Elia extra attention so we can avoid any feelings of being left out.
I gave Kara a bath on Saturday and love how curly her hair gets when it's wet, so I thought I would document it for the future:

I clicked right at the right moment to get this sweet little smile during a dream. I sure wish I could read her dreams. Some people hypothesize that babies dream about nursing, but I like to think that they still have a glimpse (or sense) of what heaven was like and maybe they dream about heaven. I sure think about what heaven is like when I look at her.

Ken and Nancy leave on Saturday night. I have to say I'm sort of dreading doing this by myself and I know other people have it much worse and don't get any help, but it sure is nice to have extra hands. Ken trimmed our bushes today and as they were leaving with Elia to visit some people they know here (while Ethan, Kara and I nap), Nancy said, "I'm looking forward to folding laundry when I get back." It's times like these that I sure miss being near family.

I feel like at the end of this week I'll have to really get back to the real world! AAAAHHHH! Sunday, while the others were at church, I couldn't sleep and basically made a plan and goals for the next little while... things I wanted to do to improve myself, things to make our family and home function better, and ideas on how to manage my time and life better. Eric was a little speechless when he saw the "plan", but I told him not to worry... I'm better at planning than implementing:). That is really quite true, but if I can even do half of what's on my list I think things will be more smooth.