Baby Naming Ceremony

On Saturday, November 26th, we held Charlotte's baby naming at the Montlake Community Center. The whole family was in town for Thanksgiving so everyone was able to be there. And all our friends came, too. 

Grandma baked a ton of cookies and we had a huge cake decorated with Charlotte's Hebrew name, "Bellah," named for her Great Grandma Belle. 

Rabbi Jessica Marshall gave a beautiful service that Matt & I helped write. We wrapped her in our chuppah that Hattie made for our wedding. Matt couldn't hold back the tears during his reading:

Build me a daughter who will be strong enough to know when she is weak and brave enough to face herself when she is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, but humble and gentle in victory.  Send her not only in the path of ease and comfort, but also in the spur of difficulty and challenge.  Let her learn to stand up in the storm; Let her learn compassion for those who fall.  Grant her the insight to know herself, and the wisdom to honor her heritage.  Be with us, her parents, as we begin this new journey through life.

Build me a daughter whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high; a daughter who will master herself before she seeks to master others; one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past. Give her the humility that she may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, and the meekness of true strength.  May she always be a blessing to her family and friends.

Aunt Bobbie Linda spoke about Grandma Jeanne, Charlotte's namesake, and Uncle Peter presented Charlotte with a handmade turtle amulet that holds a piece of her umbilical cord and connects her to her maternal lineage.
 















Aunt Liz wrote a beautiful poem that had everyone pulling out their kleenex:

One Week

By Elizabeth Knaster

Charlotte, you are sleeping again,

tucked into a sleep sack tucked into a receiving blanket tucked into my arms, curved like a nest.

People say that babies smell good and you do not disappoint:

waffle cones, cherry blossoms, freshly shampooed hair.

You frown and half smile and furrow your brow.

What are you dreaming about?

Lights and voices? Your fists against your forehead? Your first bit of air?

You are the smallest thing I have ever loved.

7 lbs 2 oz is no weight, like carrying a spool of cotton candy.

I am afraid to move my arms,

not because I’ll wake you but because I don’t want you to feel uncertainty

when you need rhythm, swaddle, skin.

It is your instinct to trust me.

I have a list of 10,000 beautiful things about the world and I want to tell you about all of them, Charlotte, it will take my lifetime to tell them all.

When I’m done you will lean over my bed and watch me sleep

and count my fingers and toes and smell my hair,

which will smell like an old book.

By then, may your heart be filled to the brim,

topped off with the love I gave you all my years.

My charlotte,

I will do everything.

Charlotte slept in her daddy's arms the entire time.

And since it was Thanksgiving weekend, Charlotte also starred as a rodent of unusual size in in her first family play, "The Princess Bride."