Long before we learned we were going to be having a girl, we had already come up with a list of names. The names we had selected for a boy were more specific than our girl names, but we had a couple of favorite girl names. Somewhere between the time we found out we were pregnant and the time we learned the gender of our little sweetheart, the two names that stood out the most, Ryen and Sophia, became one - Sophia.
Annie thought it was the cutest name, and I was pretty partial to it myself. Sophia is the capitol city of Bulgaria, where I served my mission. I like the sound of it, too. It seems to just roll off the tongue.
We also had a few decisions to make about a middle name, if a middle name was to be given at all. Eventually we came to an agreement that Lou was a good fit. Lou is Annie's middle name and has roots in her family. It also sounds really good when paired with Sophia. And that settled it, our firstborn child, as soon as we learned it was a girl, would be named Sophia Lou Hunt.
Of course, the day we found out we were having a Sophia, we had to inform family and close friends. And any reaction less than ecstatic would have been unacceptable. Ecstatic was definitely the word to describe the reactions we received, at least that was the impression we both got over the phone.
With announcing the eventual arrival of our little girl out of the way, preparing the nursery was the next big thing to tackle. As I mentioned before, Annie had come up with a few ideas for the nursery, all of which involved painting the room darker to accentuate the white furniture we had collected. The final decision on color came with a theme - the color was a bright green, the theme was fairies.
Getting permission to paint one room in our apartment was fairly easy since the owners just happen to be Annie's grandparents. When she asked permission from her grandma, the response was, "As long as it's not something like bright purple, then yes."
Grandma was definitely in for a surprise when she came over and found Annie and her mom putting a bright coat of green paint on the walls. Once a second coat went on, the color evened out, once the paint dried and once we put the furniture in to accentuate the green, the room was amazing.
And, while on the subject of furniture, I can't forget about the crib. The crib situation has been something else. It began during the summer of 2006 while we were living in Minnesota. While at a flea market with some other ladies, Annie found an antique rod-iron crib that she fell in love with. So much so that she bought it and we hauled in our car all the way back to Utah.
The crib was set up in what became the nursery from the moment we moved in to our apartment in American Fork. But as it stood there in the corner of that room, it became more evident each day that, though it was an exquisite piece of antique furniture, it wasn't as functional as we had hoped. The bars on were far enough apart that Sophia could have easily stuck her head right through them, and probably wouldn't be able to get it back out.
We decided that a new crib would be in our best interest, so we went crib hunting. We found a nice crib for very little money at Deseret Industries that we both thought looked nice - with a few changes and a fresh coat of white paint of course. The same time Annie and her mom were painting the nursery green, they also painted the crib white. Only one problem: There was still a coat of varnish on the crib and the paint had to be applied thickly to stick to the crib. Also the weather was making the paint apply very unevenly.
From the moment the paint began to dry on the crib Annie was disappointed with it. So much so that it weighed on her mind until eventually she began looking into buying a new crib that would require no handywork aside from putting it together. By the time October rolled around, she had decided on which crib she really liked. This crib was an antique white one at Target. We noticed the display while we were shopping for a car seat, and Annie had to have it.
Unfortunately, they didn't have any in stock. Neither did any Target stores in the state of Utah we found out soon after. But Annie would not be deterred. She checked the availability of the crib often and eventually the Target store a few blocks away reported a "limited availability" of that crib. I ran over and we were able to get the one crib of that model that the store had received (There's plenty more that goes along with that story, but it's irrelevant to what I'm talking about, so perhaps another time).
to be continued...
It's come down to the wire, and passed it. Annie's due date was officially yesterday, Nov. 18, and still no Sophia. But since we went to see Dr. Jones, Annie's OB, on Friday, and Thanksgiving is on Thursday, he scheduled an induction for tomorrow, Nov. 20. And that's going to be Sophia's birth date, since she's been feeling so nice and comfortable in the womb tht she doesn't want to come out.
