Annaliese Elizabeth Tinúviel Hofner

While waiting, yesterday, for a long hour as the NICU poked and prodded our baby, I was speaking with my mother about writing. I told her that I really enjoy writing something that is free to twist and turn throughout. True to that form, the 'hello world, signed little girl' post I had just finished took most of the whole to get to the true desire of the reader, our baby girl's name.

Today, there will be no (or very little) mindless wandering to keep you from the prize. I will not add in any extra sentences or thoughts that are truly unnecessary to the plot - like this one. Ooh, Mollie just mentioned my picture in the State Fa . . . no, not going to do it . . . here is what you all came for:

Annaliese Elizabeth Tinúviel Hofner was born on August 22, 2009. She has 10 fingers, 10 toes and all the expected body parts in between. Each of those parts is exceptionally small, totaling only 3 pounds, 15 ounces. She measures 17 3/4 inches. Anna made her early entrance into this world at 4:13 PM and took mere seconds to make her first noise, a small and quiet squawk. She quickly turned pink and scored an 8 on her one minute Apgar test, followed by a 9 on her five minute test. (For those who are unsure of what an Apgar test is, you can read a little here. - Anna scored two on everything but color.)

Like with Andrew, there is a lot of family history in Anna's name. Part of her first name can be found in both my and Mollie's mom's names: Christine Ann and Lou Ann Marie. Elizabeth is Mollie's middle name. Like her brother, Anna has two middle names. This can also be found in Mollie's family tree; her grandfather was Laurnie William True Koenig. The origin of her second middle name requires slightly longer lesson in family history. Ida, Mollie's great-grandmother, chose some of her children's names from books she was reading. (I just spoke to Mollie's grandmother and she said Ida also named children after pastors they had - sorry Shane, John, Barry, Jeff and Sam, we didn't adopt that tradition). Tinúviel is a name from one of J.R.R. Tolkien's works, the Silmarillion. It is found in the story "Of Beren and Luthien," which is one of our favorite stories. Her last name is just something we pulled out of thin air; it has no family history at all . . . . . . .

So there it is. Annaliese has been officially introduced to the world. I know there is a public outcry for pictures. Some have been taken, but I am currently lacking the resources to transfer them to the World Wide Web (or even the comptuer). If you're growing impatient, just imagine that it is the early 1800's and the rider for the pony express is making his way to your town, pictures of Anna being jostled about in his saddle bag. You'll just have to wait.

(By the by, Andrew's two middle names are both from his great-grandfathers, Laurnie William True Koenig and Emery Hofner.)