Baby Shower!

Baby Barnes and I felt very loved yesterday! Lauren, Allison, Tabatha and Emily threw me a WONDERFUL baby shower!

The weather was perfect, the decorations were adorable and the food was yummy!

All of that mixed with sweet company made for a perfect day! Not to mention, Emmet got a lot of goodies! Thank you so much to everyone who came; Chad and I are so blessed to have you for friends and family! We now feel a lot more prepared in the "stuff" department ;)

If yesterday was any indication, this is going to be one LOVED little boy!

*My camera acted up on me in the middle of the shower, so I will have to post the pictures of the guests and the hostesses once I get them from Lauren.

What's in a name?

I have decided to do a post reveal of Baby Barnes's name... exciting, right?!

His name will legally be Conrad Clement Barnes, IV, which I am sure that most of you saw coming. Now the funny thing about all the CCBs is that none of them have gone by any part of that name - CC, Chee Chee, and Chad. We considered being original and calling him Conrad - but to me, that just didn't fit a little boy. He may very well go by Conrad as an adult, like Chad does in business/banking/insurance kinds of settings.

So down the nickname road we went! Much discussion went into this and we researched lots and lots of "C" names before we even knew he was a boy! The night after our gender sono I was laying in bed taking apart, shortening, and rearranging his full name to find some nickname that seemed fitting for our little guy. Then it came to me...

Emmet!

It is taken out of the end of Clement, with a spelling change. Once Chad and I had discussed it, we felt that it just clicked and was perfect for our son. It was amazing how easy it became once we found THE name. I love how old fashioned it is, but in a vintage kind of way :) Not to mention, he may feel some kinship with Emmitt Smith, especially since he is destined to be a Dallas Cowboy fan! And, the female version of Emmet is Emma - which is Aunt Allison's middle name!

So, that's the story and we can't wait for little Emmet Barnes to make his debut in a few months! Also, we are finally making some headway on the nursery! We have an assembled crib and custom bedding, thanks to Zuzu! And some wall art made by Mommy and some of his Aunties. Pictures coming soon!


Update 4-1-11: Daddy here. Sorry I am going making updates to old posts, but I just wanted to share a rough draft of the monogram I came up with for our little boy that will serve both his legal name (CCB) and his common name (EB). I hope I didn't inadvertently create my son's first ink. Regardless, I hope you're impressed.

Mardi Gras

The Barneses didn't want Mardi Gras to be missed in Dallas, so we created our own NOLA feel last Tuesday! Our mini Mardi Gras celebration included Jambalaya, Strawberry Abita, Beads, King Cake, live feed from Bourbon Street on the TV, Zydeco music and Tarot Cards! Laissez les bon temps roulet!

Making Jambalaya for the first time!

It turned out pretty yummy if I may say so myself :)

King Cake!

Emily came over to celebrate with us! And I think we have turned her into a fan of Strawberry Abita!

And Em brought her tarot cards! I drew the card that symbolizes pregnancy :)

Chad was learning the ropes of our new camera, so we never got a picture of him - but he had a pretty good time, all the same. He was pretty happy and thanked me for "embracing his culture" and we can't wait to do it again next year with our little man!

Check out Lauren's post about their New Orleans trip and see Carlyle dancing to a street band: http://dalalimama.blogspot.com/2011/02/laissez-le-bon-ton-roulet.html

90 days to go!

We are closing out the second trimester this week! Crazy, but true :) I'm excited, but partly freaked by the idea that we will be completely in charge of a brand new person in three short months! I am enjoying looking pregnant (not just fat) these days, although I am anxious to see how big this boy will get! Here is the belly at 26 weeks, 4 days:

Baby Boy is growing strong and still kicking up a storm! He is active on and off all day long, but he particularly likes night time - which makes for difficult sleeping - so I better get used to late nights.

We got a quick visit from Aunt Allison 2 weekends ago, but she will be back at the end of this month for a bit longer. Now we just need to figure out when we can visit her in California :)

Since every blog post has to have a little segment about how great Chad is: he surprised me on Saturday with our fancy new baby camera!! We both wanted to get one so we can have excellent photos of our little man, but we weren't sure we could swing it - so it was a very exciting to come home to. This really meant a lot to me because we will never get those first little moments back. Chad has been so self-less when it comes to meeting the needs of our little family, and I feel like one lucky girl :)

Lastly, we got to spend some time with the Garrity family this past Sunday! Chad and I are thrilled because Carlyle can say our names!! We absolutely adore our niece, and we are so happy to be "Nana and Datch" -she is so fun and talkative these days. Plus, she gave us a good excuse to try out our new digital and video cameras She is a little fast for our picture taking skills, but Justin assures us we will get quicker before our boy is up and running.

Daddy Post

Well, baby time is almost upon us. I was commenting to Shauna the other day how surreal it is that one day soon all this weight she's carrying in her fronts is gonna just fall out of her and POOF (This is an over-simplification to be sure what with the labor pains, etc.) and there's another person in the world. A person I will love instantaneously more than I have ever loved anyone ever. Birth is truly an amazing, awe-inspiring event. I feel this way now and yet I am merely on the event horizon.

As amazing as this all is sometimes I do catch myself from time to time having to remember that we are actually having a baby. It makes me smile. Our entire world is going to change. Never again will my thoughts be far from my son and my wife. I don't even think that I can truly comprehend the depth of change that we are about to experience. I guess that no one can. We don't know what we don't know. This dramatic shift in perspective will undoubtedly turn me into a much more cautious person. I have also felt that since we found out we were pregnant me and Shauna have grown so much closer. So close that any measurements between us would have lost locality a long time ago.

My wife is a wonderful woman and I am so lucky that I have her. She has been a real trooper through all of the inconvenient symptoms of pregnancy. Everyday she is more and more beautiful.