72 bingo cards, pine 1x4 s, plywood, paint and the best laid plans...
Monday, June 27, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
what's in a name?
This blog was almost called "Raising Josie Allen". For months we'd been trying to figure out who this little person would be and what we would call her. It is a weighty thing to choose a name for someone. It is often the first thing judged about a person and there is a lot of room to go wrong. For starters, what if the name doesn't suit her? For instance, if we name her Evelyn and she's a total tomboy is that a cute juxtaposition or just confusing? And how much room is there for quirky in a name? I love the name Clementine (so many adorable nickname possibilities!) but if she grows up to be a professional, will anyone take a 35 year old lawyer named Clementine seriously? Then there are the semantic considerations... with a last name like Tinker, one really must consider how mean kids can be. We immediately had to eliminate all names that started or ended with S or a soft C so as not to make her a Stinker, either in spelling or sound (goodbye Sylvia and Cecelia). We also got rid of any names ending in "-th"... the only thing worse than being a stinker as a kid is being a thtinker with a lisp (adios Ruth). Another consideration was the initials. We've always known our firstborn's middle name would be Allen, which creates a lot of word possibilities with the initials. We had to ditch anything starting with F or R, because FAT or RAT is just a cruel thing to do to a girl...
So we had finally narrowed our list down to two names, but we both were pretty certain she would be Josephine: a beautiful and classic name with lots of nickname options that can be tailored to fit whoever she grows up to be. Even while pushing I was thinking "Come on Josie, let's get this over with!".
Then we met her and we both knew she wasn't a Josephine. None of the nicknames fit her... She wasn't a Jo, Josie, Joey, JoJo, Sophie or Pheenie.... So we went back to the drawing board and examined our entire list of name possibilities we'd gathered over the last nine months. Few of them fit either. They were too girly or too plain, not quirky enough or just didn't suit her. After a full 24 hours of debating (with a hospital imposed naming deadline rapidly approaching) we decided she was Zooey. Yes it's spelled funny and people will probably mispronounce it her entire life, but it suits her. She is Zooey. And it's a good thing we didn't commit to a name before we met her, because it turns out we had no idea who she was until she showed up.
Coffee is important...
You think coffee was important before a baby... Luckily we bought this great Z mug at fishseddy on clearance in manhattan before the young lady was ever born. it was meant to be i guess...
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