What's In A Name?

We decided to do an at home Bris (circumcision), albeit a very unorthadox one. We kept it to our family only, and my father (a physician) performed the deed in leiu of the traditional Jewish Mohel. I read the following poem from one of my favorite poets, e.e. cummings.

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)

i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;

which grows

higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart

(i carry it in my heart)

We then told our families the reason we had given our son his names, and also revealed his Hewbrew name.

Quentin - A name we both liked and chose from a baby book of names. But we both chuckled when we realized the name means 'fifth' and he was to be the fifth member of our family (after us and the dogs of course). And everyone teases us about how our doggies are very much members of our family too, so we thought it fitting.

Brooks - We've given our son the name Brooks in honor of his great-grandfather Brooks Claridge. Brooks was a a wonderful man how loved life and loved his family. He valued greatly education, exploring the world through travel and never shied away from a fun bet on a sporting event. We've given our son this name because Brooks Claridge embodied so many beautiful qualities of life that we wish for our son, Quentin Brooks.

Shalom Haskala - We've given our son the Hebrew name Shalom Haskala which means Peace and Enlightenment. Shalom was also the Hebrew name of his great-grandfather Sidney Rosenfeld and it is in honor of another wonderful man that we have named our son. Sidney was a man at peace with his life and someone whom Scott always considered enlightened because he was always able to look at the world and not take it (or himself) too seriously. Humor was a big part of his life and it is this outlook along with peace and enlightenment that we wish for Quentin as well.

After the Bris we had a meet and greet party to welcome Quentin. Many of our friends came over to see the new baby. Quentin was asleep (or eating) for most of it, but I think everyone enjoyed getting to meet the little guy!

Even Q's buddy Zaharia made an appearance!