Namesake

When we were thinking of what to name our little girl we wanted to name her after independent women that have been important and influential in our lives. This is a little background information about why we named our little girl Lillian Mona.
Lillian is named after Tracy's Great Grandmother Lily seen here holding Tracy when Tracy was little. Great Grandmother Lily lived to be over 100 years old. She raised her children mostly on her own after the early passing of her husband. She was very independent and loved life.

Lillian's middle name Mona is Ryan's Grandmother's name. This is a picture of Grandmona (her grandchildren all call her Grandmona, not Grandma Mona and she is one Grand lady) holding baby Lillian. Grandmona just turned 90 and came to the hospital to visit us and meet her Great Granddaughter. Grandmona is also a very independent and opinionated woman. She still lives all on her own and does everything for herself. She also lost her husband at a young age and raised 3 boys without a spouse.

Grandmona's only requirement for using her name was that Lily would eventually be given the opportunity to learn to play the piano. In her early days Grandmona was an amazing pianist. She still plays beautifully but rarely does so. She prefers watching sports and politics these days. In her college days she was asked to move to New York to play with an established singer but she was madly in love with Ryan's Grandfather and decided to stay and get married instead. Luckily she chose love and made all of our lives possible. Lillian was born with really long fingers so she will most likely make an excellent piano player and maybe she will have perfect pitch like her Great Grandmother.

Grandmona made Lillian Mona this beautiful blanket, an amazing masterpiece at any age, especially at 90!! Lillian loves it of course and cuddles with it daily.

Another picture of Lillian cuddled in her blanket made by Grandmona.

Finally we couldn't resist taking a picture of Lily holding a Lily!