Change of Policy

I debated with myself for awhile about starting to use real names on this blog.

In the end, as you can see, I decided to go ahead and do it. First of all, most of you readers know me and know my kids’ names IRL already. So what was the point of nicknames, anyway?

Secondly, my children are not really those nicknames any longer. They have outgrown them.

I used Gabriel’s real name from the start, of course. Gabriel was not a name that we had picked out for a boy — I honestly forget what we had picked out — but once we were facing his delivery, we knew we needed another name. Gabriel, if you didn’t know, means “God is my strength.”

Monkey was Flora’s nickname when she was a toddler — actually, her full nickname (one of several, of course) was Monkeyhead for how hyped up she would get over things and the way she would jump around. Nowadays I tend to call her Flora-bean, Drama Queen, or Young Lady. (She replies to this last, rather indignantly, “I’m not a Young Lady.” Truer words were never spoken, dear. Now pull your dress down.)

And Bun, that is, Kate… well she hasn’t been Bun for a year or more. She’s my Wild Child, in no uncertain terms.

Dan — DearDR — wanted me to keep the nicknames because he liked them. And I like them, too, but I was tired of editing for nicknames.