The Name Game, Quilts, and Prenatal Yoga

I know, it’s a little early to think about names… but talk about a big decision! I mean, just consider how much a name can determine for a child. After all, Tay was almost named “Mountain.” I’m not sure I could have fallen in love with a man named Mountain.

We’ve got our girl options pegged and narrowed down to two choices, but boys’ names? Drawing a complete and total blank. And when one of us does think of a possibility, we can’t seem to agree on anything. I think part of the problem is that our last name ends in “-don”, and so many boys names end the same way… I love Shannon for a boy, but there’s that pesky “on” ending. Oh and alliteration. I’m not a big fan, so while I love names that start with C and K (Cameron, Kyle, Cory, Carson), our name starts with C so those are out as well. And then the other problem is that Tay apparently knows too many guys, because every time I come up with something, he says “no, that reminds me of so-and-so.”

I’ve been quilting like crazy, something about the precise measurement, cutting, and piecing together all of these beautiful fabrics really appeals to me. After trawling through fabric stores throughout San Luis Obispo County, San Francisco, and Scotts Valley, I finally came up with my final combination. And now that all of my blocks are pieced and I can see how it will come together, I’m so excited I can hardly wait to finish. I’m a little stuck now on some tricky measurements, but luckily I have quilting class tonight to get me back on track!

I’ve already started to gather fabrics for the next quilt. I bought two different sets of fabrics, one with primarily blues and greens and one with pinks, browns, and golden yellows. So before I complete my fabric selection, I’m waiting til the end of the month so I can know what I’m having. So exciting! It would be rather convenient to have a girl, as then I could use my “boy” fabrics to make a quilt for good friend A’s son… Ah yes. This is just like me to base my gender preferences on current fabric selection process.

The belly is starting to show, although I’m still in that realm of “pregnant or bloated.” This weekend we floated up the Salinas river (it flows north) with a bunch of folks, and I felt extremely self conscious in a bikini at first, until Tay pointed out that almost all the other women had larger bellies than I did… and they weren’t 4 months pregnant. Oops. I took a prenatal yoga class last night and one of the girls was just 2 weeks ahead of me. I couldn’t help but be envious of her buddha belly. Again, I’m faced with my impatience!

I was quite surprised that I actually enjoyed the prenatal class. I knew it would be much gentler than my normal ashtanga practice, and I also know that the instructor is very… cerebral… and shares a great deal of her knowledge during her classes. In the past, when I’ve taken vinyasa classes from her, I’ve had difficulty dropping in to my breath because of this, but yesterday was different. The instant camaraderie with the small group of women was nice, and the modified practice felt really good. I know I’ll continue with my ashtanga self-practice, but I’ll definitely do the prenatal thing once a week.