He has been named!

It has been the longest we have ever waited to announce what our newest little bundle will be named but without further adieu, Johnny Number Five will now be referred to as.....

Taking about 8+ weeks longer than before, I would say we have been driven crazy trying to figure this out but I'd be lying. Robby would be fine waiting until it's time to write the name down for the birth certificate....it's all me. Again, just like last time, boy names are extremely difficult to come up with at the Nest & even harder for us to agree on but we just love the final choice.

A little back story on how we got here....

Since we ended up with the first four Valentine babies having names that include an "O" I was determined to find another name with one. Robby, not so much...but that didn't surprise me since I am known to be a little strange about letters, numbers & our children's names going well together. A friend of ours mentioned the name & initially we were not won over. We continued making our "mental" lists & crossing them out. I liked Milo for a bit but we could not get the "Milo & Otis" movie out of our heads & were forced to cross draw a big fat line through it mainly because Milo is a talking cat. I brought up "Arlo" one evening & it caught Rob's attention. It met the "not completely strange but not common" genre. We immediately jumped online to learn more about the name. 

Here are some things we found out:

• it is of German descent
• it means "fortified hill"
• Woody Guthrie's son is named Arlo & wrote he wrote song about him called "Goodnight Little Arlo" - that was the "winning" over for me
• There is a series of children's books about Arlo the Armadillo & another book called "Arlo's Artrageous Adventure" that Grammy just happened upon while out shopping one day. It is now in our library : ) 
• there is no connection to Texas history or towns which sent us on a hunt for a middle name that might meet that requirement for the Valentine boys

I think we made the decision on the first name by the end of May but the middle name was undecided until a couple weeks ago. Robby was still hooked on Banjo ; ) I was brainstorming just in case I didn't come around to his thinking. 

I had been adding some family names to my list but nothing stood out as perfectly fitting between Arlo & Valentine until I thought about my grandfather who was named Shedrick Benton Loftin. BENTON....I loved everything about how it sounded! First of all, here he is....

My mother's father, a handsome man met my Grandma Shirley in the fall of 1948 when she was attending Mary Hardin Baylor in Belton,Texas when it was an all girls school. She was set up on a blind date by her friend's husband & they went to the Louisiana State Fair. Apparently things went well because they were engaged three months later & married three months after that! 

He & Shirley had a houseful of girls to raise, four of them to be exact & once they were grown, life became filled with son in laws & seven grandchildren. He was pretty fond of the wee ones. We referred to him as Paw Paw & here we are together....

They were faithful to one another in marriage until he died in 1993.  I was only ten at the time but remember the days that followed as it was my first experience with death. One thing that comes to mind is the scripture that was read at his funeral & was recorded in the book that my grandmother wrote. These are words that should be hidden in our hearts & we pray would also be hidden in the heart of our baby boy, Arlo Benton.

Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
     Serve the Lord with gladness!
    Come into his presence with singing!

 Know that the Lord, he is God!
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
    and his courts with praise!
    Give thanks to him; bless his name!

 For the Lord is good;
    his steadfast love endures forever,
    and his faithfulness to all generations.

The more time I spend with my grandmother, the more stories I hear about this man.  It makes me miss him & makes me smile as we spend time in the home where he once lived. GGran even has his old recliner so snuggles abound with my four from the arms of the wife he loved for many years. He would have enjoyed the growing number of great grandchildren bringing much noise & destruction to his home....lots of noise....like 7 (soon to be 9) great grandchildren over the course of six years kind of noise.

Once I said "Benton" to Robby, he smiled & said he agreed it was a great fit.  The name got bonus points when we found that it is a Texas ghost town....not because of the ghost part....just the town ; ) It means "settlement in a grassy place" which with "fortified hill"makes a lovely combination of what you could do on a sunny day. We got to laughing at the park the day we decided what to name him. We were saying "I'm going to climb up this fortified hill & settle in a grassy place" aka "I'm going to Arlo Benton." How many names offer that? Haha! He has also said that my belly is looking more & more like a fortified hill every day....true statement.

Sigh of relief, he finally has a name!

Robby brought to light something he knew I would LOVE about the name Arlo due to my obsession with letters. Arlo contains - A from Anson, R-for Robby, L-for Lauren & O-for Owen & we call Eloise "Lo or Lolo" all the time. He was right, I loved that but was left thinking about someway it could relate to Charlotte's name. Two days later I was writing her name and realized...ch-ARLO-tte! How fun! Not necessary but SO fun.

To elaborate on a bullet point that was previously listed,  the beloved "Goodnight Little Arlo" song that won my heart over to his name could not be any cuter! He actually says "darlin" instead of Arlo but it is easily interchangeable with not only Arlo but our other two buckaroos.  We are always looking for a new bedtime tune! This one has a Gene Autry sound like Home on the Range which gets me into a country mood. Here are the lyrics if you don't make it over to YouTube to check it out....

Goodnight, little darlin', goodnight,
Goodnight, little darlin', goodnight, goodnight,
Goodnight, little darlin', goodnight, goodnight,
Goodnight, little darlin', goodnight.

You've played, little darlin', all day
Your eyes are sleepy, I see,
Boys and girls are all sleepin' tight,
Goodnight little darlin', good night.

You've played, little darlin' all day,
With dolls and wagons and clay,
Your bath was warm and your jammers are nice,
Goodnight, little darlin', goodnight.

You hurt your finger, I see,
Come here and bring him to me.
Wrap little finger up nice and tight,
Goodnight, little darlin', goodnight.

You danced and sung with the kids,
Told me all that you did,
Told me your games and told me your fights,
Goodnight, little darlin', goodnight.

Tippy tip toe now to bed,
Snug and snug down your head,
Cover you over so nice and tight,
Goodnight, little darlin', goodnight.

I'll see you when the morning gets bright,
Don't let the beddybugs bite,
We'll both jump up when the sun gets light,
Goodnight, little darlin', goodnight.

Oh my goodness, LOVE the words, love that he calls them jammers & love that it has that country bumpkin feel. For the first week in early May that we started talking about this name, we played the song from Rob's phone & placed it near my belly. At that point, Arlo was not doing a whole lot of wiggling but throughout that week he would get movin' & groovin' when it would play. Finally after a week of "trying out the name," I said "Let's play the song & if he dances again, his name will be Arlo." I laughed out loud when by the time we hit verse two, he kicked hard enough for me to see him from the outside as he started his little jiggity jig. It was decided, he wanted to be named Arlo & that would be his name!

We shared with the kids & some sweet little lady named Charlotte had a really hard time adjusting to the idea.....like extremely hard. She shared that she would not help take care of him if his name was Arlo & that if we named him that she was just going to call him Everett or Oliver (two other names that had been crossed off). It caused such disruption in our day if the name was mentioned we just referred to him as "baby brother" for a good week or two before gradually adding it back into regular vocabulary. She caught me off guard one afternoon when she said "I think I really like the name Arlo now Mommy!" Whew! Glad that was over! It was over until she got hooked on Tyler for a middle name....her idea completely....she has said that she might just call him Tyler anyway. People will be so confused with a grandpa calling him Johnny & a sister calling him Tyler ; )

The kids refer to him as Arlo all the time now & are happy to share with others that baby Arlo is in Mommy's belly.  I thought it wold be fun to use blocks to announce the name just like we did with the twins but make it a little more exciting with four siblings behind the blocks. There was a lot of rebuilding due to a wild bronc-O...

Owen was making us all laugh & I thought there could not be a more fitting photo series to document life at the Nest right now. Get ready Arlo Benton, life is a little on the wild side around here! Don't worry little buddy, we won't do your birth announcement like this ; )