Saturday, February 19, 2011

20 weeks 5 days - February 19, 2011

To my two beautiful little girls,
A lot has happened in the past two weeks since I last wrote to you. Actually, I should say that one major thing has happened...we came up with your names! Before we found out we were having two girls, ew had one boys name and one girls name picked out. If one of you turned out to be a boy, we were going to name you Aksel Burke. Now, mommy and daddy aren't crazy. When we were thinking of names, we wanted something a little different and we've both been drawn to Scandinavian names. One, daddy lived in Finland when we was ski jumping and had a Finnish coach. Two, we wanted a name that would go well with Hoffman, and three Mommy has a love for Norway and wants nothing more than to go there someday. Mommy came up with the boy name when watching the 2010 Winter Olympics. A very famous alpine skier named Aksel Lund and a local biathlete from Paul Smith, NY named Tim Burke were both competing at the Olympics. Mommy fell in love with the name Aksel and Burke seemed like a good fit for a middle name. Thus, Aksel Burke Hoffman was born...but we have now been blessed with two girls so Aksel is no more!

So since we found out we were having girls, mommy and daddy started coming up with names. Daddy's #1 pick was Stella. It is a good Scandinavian name that happens to be the #1 girls name in Sweden for 2010. Mommy stumbled upon Sophie and liked that it is a delicate name. Stella means "star" and Sophie means "wisdom." We really hope that you will channel each other's meanings and be both bright as a star and smart in everything you do. When we started thinking of middle names, we tried to come up with a family name, but couldn't think of anything we liked. Mommy has always been fascinated with old Hollywood glamour. When the sonographer said, "Congrats, you are having two little princesses," I thought it would be great to incorporate that somehow into our old Hollywood middle names that we envisioned. So, thus came Audrey and Grayce. Audrey means "noble strength" and the name stemmed from a 16th century English Princess. It is also the name of mommy's favorite Hollywood actress, Audrey Hepburn who starred in "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Grayce stems from one of the classiest, most beautiful actresses, Grace Kelly. She also became a real princess when she married the Prince of Monaco. We decided to change the spelling so it would be a little more unique, so we added the "y" to it. Grayce m
eans favor/blessing and you are definitely that!

So, now we have two beautiful first names and two beautiful middle names. Which one of you gets each name? Well, that part was really easy. From the time of our first sonogram, we started calling Baby A "kari" and Baby B "taylor." Baby B seems very rambunctious and kicks mommy a lot and is very active. Mommy and daddy joke that you are training inside me to become a ski jumper! Baby A has been sitting towards mommy's back, so your movements are a little less noticeable (until today). Also, in the ultrasound Baby B likes to move a lot and Baby A is a little more relaxed...kind of like mommy. So, since mommy came up with Sophie Grayce and daddy came up with Stella Audrey (well...he came up with Stella), we decided that Baby A will be Sophie Grayce and Baby B will be Stella Audrey! Now that you both have names, mommy and daddy talk to you all the time. Everyone we tell your names to loves them so I think we did a good job. We hope you like your names too!

Aside from names, mommy has been playing lots of music for you. It has mainly been classical, OM/soothing type music but I plan to start playing some opera because you
both seem to enjoy it...that or you are kicking me to get it to stop! You have both been very active lately. Last night, Aunt Jessica and I took your cousin Alyssa to see Disney on Ice Princess Classics. You two were kicking like crazy during most of the show. It was really funny! At one point, Sophie pushed so hard against mommy's belly that I could see a hard spot (head or butt) protruding from my belly!

Today, you are both on your second plane ride.
Your first was a very long trip to Maui, Hawaii. Today we are on our way to Las Vegas, NV because mommy has a work conference there. You two have been very active and were kicking for most of the car ride to the airport. Daddy has been very sick, I think he has the flu or something so I've been trying to keep my distance so you two stay healthy. Daddy is on the plane with me and we plan on doing a little sightseeing today and tomorrow. Mommy is also getting her first pregnancy massage tomorrow while daddy gets a Swedish massage. Our list bit of real relaxing before you both enter this world!

We love you so much and cannot wait to meet you, Sophie & Stella!
Love,
Mommy

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