Owen

Last night at dinner, Jack said that he's ready to commit to the name.

We've been holding out because nothing felt as right to us for this boy as Rosemary did for our baby girl, and in fact I told Jack that I really didn't have a preference among our top three names, and he could choose.

Boy names are hard.

We've chosen Owen Howard for our baby.

Of uncertain origin, Owen is most likely Celtic or Welsh, meaning "young warrior". Some positive associations we have with the name are John Owen, a Puritan writer; Owen Meany (title character of a John Irving novel); and, for me at least, Owen Wister (author of "The Virginian" and the father of western fiction). It was the 51st most popular baby boy's name in America last year.

Howard is Jack's mother's maiden name (Rosemary's middle name is Cross, my grandmother's maiden name). Howard is of Old English (or Norse, or German, or French) origin and means "noble watchman," "guardian," or "shepherd".

I finished Owen's quilt a while back, but we've been working on a few other things for his room. Using up fabric scraps, I've made a soft ball and a fleece-backed playmat. ONe of the fabric scraps had a pocket, so I made a few little toys to reside in the pocket.


Using cardstock, I made a mobile inspired by ideas here and here.


But best of all, Jack made one of his record mosaics. Using old records and record sleeves, he created this airplane on an old piece of plywood.

cradle

Here is the beautiful cradle Papa made for us, along with a few shots of how the guest room is becoming the nursery/guest room.






The bed and nightstand were Grandma Criss's, and were in my room when I was growing up. That mattress must be 60 years old. The blue down comforter was what I took to college.

I can't wait until Jack finishes his project - something to hang above the bed - so I can show it to you. It's awesome.

Speaking of awesome, we decided to postpone meatless monday to another day this week (when we'll probably just have a simple veggie quiche with crackers). Valentines Day is for carnivores. Jack made osso buco and a light vegetable pasta. For dessert he made carmelized pears over haagen daaz vanilla bean ice cream, with a 70% dark chocolate sauce. Yum.

a quilt square

I have made my first actual quilt square, like one from a pattern, not just something I made up. It will be the center of baby brother's quilt, and the rest will be blocks of various greys and white.



For this quilt, I'm using almost all repurposed materials - some old clothes of Jack's, and a few other things I picked up at the Goodwill.

I guess there are going to be a lot of primary colors in this boy's life. Tonight I made a bib with some scraps of my quilting fabrics. I used a bib that Grandma Criss made for Rosie as my template.


Baby brother's bib reminds me of nothing more than the comforters that used to be on my brothers' beds - they were navy on one side, red on the other. Nothing wrong with being like the Lepine brothers, is there?

The problem with sewing in the evenings is that it always wakes me up instead of calming me down. Now I've stayed up past my (ten o'clock!) bedtime again.

baby boy room

I'm not a skilled decorator. And while we're on the subject, I don't keep my house very clean either. (Instead I blog, I guess.) I'm a pretty good cook, and I'm good at taking care of kids, but when it comes to housecleaning I'm lazy, and when it comes to decorating I'm intimidated (both by the task and the cost). Despite that, I really like thinking about spaces for my kids. I think it helps me begin to feel a sense of connection.

When I was pregnant with Rosemary, I felt very clearly that sage green, pink, deep red, and brown were the colors for her, and that I wanted her room to feel natural and magical, like a midsummer night's dream.





With the boy, both the name and the vision have been more difficult. And it's not like this boy has his own room waiting for him. He's going to sleep in our room for a few months, and then (if we're even still in this house after July) he'll either move into Rosie's room, or we'll squeeze his crib into the guest room. But I want to make him a blanket, and for that I feel a need to have a whole room envisioned. Jack and I would also like to find something we can create together for his room, like the tree we made for Rosie. This shouldn't be an expensive thing to do, just a creative way to begin connecting.

Here are my inspiring images, so far.







Exploration, antique maps and aeroplanes, I guess. The world is his oyster. Rich red, dark blue (to almost navy), mustardy yellow. Thoughts? Ideas?