So, who is this Charlie Girl anyway?!

Charlotte Jane Dean -

Charlotte = my Grandma (Charlotte Katherine) and my mom (Charlotte Lynn - goes by Lynn)

Jane = Brian's mom's middle name (Cythina Jane). And they have the same initials, CJD!


Brian and I had a heck of a time trying to come up with names when we found out we were pregnant. If Charlotte had been a boy, she still might be unnamed! But, when we realized we had pretty good family names to work with and came up with Charlotte Jane, very early on... that was it! We loved it and it stuck! And we never looked back. We told everyone at Thanksgiving that we were having a girl - and that her name would be Charlotte Jane Dean.

Only problem... Charlotte is a pretty big name for a little girl. Little did we know how big our little girl would end up being, but it was intimidating naming this little itty bitty baby (oh, who are we kidding - those words certainly did not describe her as a newborn - again, little did we know...) such a big name. It's nine letters, old-fashioned, and found on practically nothing!! Poor kid is going to grow up without name barrettes like I did as a kid! Brittany was not common, and hard to find. And there's nothing better than when someone tells us their mother / grandmother / great-grandmother's name was Charlotte or Jane.... just what you want for your sweet little unborn baby!! :) But, we knew we loved it! We knew it was strong, very special to us, and she was named after all of her Grandma's! We were moving ahead full-throttle!

So, Brian started calling her Charlie! Perfect nickname - short and sweet. A bit more kid-friendly and not your great-grandma's name. In fact, most of her time spend in utero she was Charlie. Or Baby Charlie, as her cousins called her. We never called her Charlotte. But, then we met her and realized she had a personality bigger than life and could sustain that Charlotte name, no problem. She was born at 9lbs 11 oz, outweighed all of the other babies in the nursery by 2+ lbs (all boys), and screamed her head off. She was evicted from the hospital nursery twice for disturbing the peace! She was CHARLOTTE JANE and here to tell her story!! And then on those content moments, rare as they might be... she was still Baby Charlie.

And the Girl - well, I don't know exactly how it came to be, but I remember being on maternity leave and it was one of those 4:00 pm hours, when I was desperately waiting for Brian to come home to take a turn with the baby. One of those days when sleep was so passe and yesteryear to an infant... and I just realized that I had met my match. This girl was going to trump me in more ways than I could ever imagine! This girl, my Charlie Girl, was a serious force to be reckoned with!

And she still is! :)