Cora Linnae

Planning the birth announcement is probably my second favorite part of being pregnant, after picking out decor for the nursery, so I was super excited to get to help design another one for baby #3. As I did with Claire, I worked with my friend Ally months before Cora was due- I think I sent my first email with announcement design ideas in July, and she was very tolerant of my numerous follow-up emails with tweaks and ideas. With a November due date, I wanted a combo birth announcement/ Christmas card that both announced and featured our new baby, but didn't ignore the fact that new baby was joining a family with two already existing children. Ally did a fabulous job and I'm so happy with how it came together.

front

inside left and right

back

I do just adore personalized stationery. I'm helping my sister design her wedding invitations and every font and color choice gives me a thrill.

But back to Cora. She turned 2 months old today! I'll write more about that after her check-up on Tuesday, but suffice it to say she is the sweetest and very tolerant of how much her big siblings adore her.

Claire: Mommy, I just LOVE my baby Cora.
Cora: Help me.

JP and I were just discussing tonight how much we like Cora's name and how weird it is that we picked it, this name she'll have for her whole life, at random out of a book one night. A book I bought after JP and I were at a complete loss for girl's names we liked that weren't "Claire." I love Claire's name- it was the only name we ever had on the list for a girl. I've loved it since I first read Outlander (which is being turned into a TV series!) in high school and I love it still. I think part of the reason I was so certain Cora was a boy when we went in for our anatomy ultrasound was because I had a boy's name all picked out, with multiple back-ups, and nada on the girl's name front.

So, at 20 weeks, we got down to work. Me, by reading lists and lists of girl's names off the internet, and JP, by saying "no" to all of them. Our first two favorites, Isla and Carys, were ultimately kicked out for being too hard to pronounce and spell. So I bought a book, thinking that ink on paper would lend an additional bit on inspiration that the internet was failing to provide. I read it cover to cover and circled all the names I didn't dislike, leaving us with: Julia, Heidi, Lila, Audrey, Natalie, Violet, Cora, and Linnea (I still love every one of those names). I read that list to JP and he popped his head up from his laptop at Cora and said, "I like that!". And bam, we were done. Or mostly done, I still quizzed him every week or so to be sure he liked it, but he did, and we did, and soon, when my baby swam around in my belly it became Cora swimming around in my belly and it was done. The middle name was going to be Mary (my grandmother's name) or Linnae (a very popular Swedish name, for the common Linnea flower that grows there; it is also my sister, aunt, and cousin's middle names). JP always liked Linnae, and I liked it better with Cora, so that was done too. As I write this, I realize he pretty much picked all of Cora's name, as he did with Landon's. Claire Annalise was all me, so if we were to have a fourth (which he EMPHATICALLY proclaims we are not), I suppose it will be my turn again.

So Cora Linnae she is. I think it's a beautiful, simple, classic name (that is easily spelled and pronounced, with no shortened versions or available nicknames!) that suits her as much now as an adorably chubby baby as I think it will for the rest of childhood, teenagedom, and adulthood. She was laying on my knees yesterday and every time I said, "CORA!" she did this:

So I think she likes it too. Or she just likes when I exclaim loudly at her. Either way, she's our happy baby Cora and I can't think of her any other way.