Isobelle

The day I received news on Isobelle, I had a bouquet of flowers sent to me. Something I, her mother would not choose, but they chose the arrangement as if they knew her. I know for a fact though, that she came into my life for a reason- fate & destiny- and for eternity she will be my baby girl.

When I first laid eyes on the flowers, it took sometime getting used to it. For someone who is more comfortable with white lilies and roses, with spruces of baby breath as the 'softner', this eccentric blend of yellow and dark purple made me slightly edgy. But the more I looked at it at the back of the car, the more I understood her - understood me and why she is in my life, for better or for worst. It didn't take long for me to get strangely drawn to the beauty of these flowers.

I picture a little girl, smelling fresh with innocence and a tinge of chocolate chip cookies in her hair, running back from the fields - and she comes back with a smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye -

"here mommy...this is for you"

And as I search for a vase, wide enough to display the odd length flowers, that I suspiciously think, has been bitten off in some areas- she sits down proudly on the kitchen stool playing with her new pet Sparticus, whom she had nursed to recovery weeks back.

18 more weeks to go Isobelle.

You're my melody that makes my lyrics heard, appreciated and adorned by others -- thank you. I love you.

ISABEL, ISABELLE, ISABELLA. Eavesdrop at a play group in SoHo or Santa Monica tomorrow and we'll lay odds that you'll hear at least one version of this so-hot-it's-afire name. A venerable Spanish and Portuguese variation of Elizabeth (it went from Elizabeth to ILSABETH to ISABEAU to Isabelle), Isabella is known to every school child as the name of the Queen of Castile who helped finance Christopher Columbus's expedition to the New World. And since then it has had an incredibly rich history as a royal name, a literary name (Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and Henry V, a narrative poem by Keats, novels by Jane Austen and Henry James), even a soap opera (Loving) and star-baby (chosen by Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, Geraldo Rivera, and Jeff Bridges) name. But despite its burgeoning popularity, we still can't restrain ourselves from recommending it, because it is simply one of the most enduringly beautiful names we know. It's got some pretty terrific nicknames and foreign variations too: IZZY, IBBY, BELLE, and BELLA; the Gaelic ISHBEL and the Scottish ISOBEL; and the Old French ISABEAU (the name of Michelle Pfeiffer's character in Ladyhawke.)