The Name Game

Years ago, when we were younger and only had one young child, we would make the occasional 10-hour drive to Missouri to visit with family for a weekend. Sadly, weekend trips just don't seem to be worth the effort now. We usually drove to Missouri at night, while Kit slept. We learned not to make the return trip at night after the first time we tried - we drove from Joplin to Springfield (about an hour and a half), stopped to get gas and then parked the car so I could feed Kit. Jay and I both fell asleep and woke up when the police knocked on our window. I guess the gas station attendant called them because we had been there so long. Hence, on subsequent trips, the drive back to Alabama took place during the day while Kit was awake and was in need of entertainment. He was excellent at twenty questions (he stumped us with a mouse hole) and drove us crazy with The Name Game. Once he learned that song, I had to sing it over and Over and OVER. He would give me an object and I would have to put it in the song. His most tedious favorite was light - red light, green light, yellow light, etc. Light, light, bo bight, banana fana fo fight, fee fi mo might, RED light (or GREEN light or YELLOW light or BLUE light or ...). I remember miles of that song.

So what does that have to do with the present? Well, names are funny things at our house. Kit was Kit until he hit 6th grade. Then he decided he was going to be Howard at school. It is very hard to talk to his teachers now because I have to constantly remind myself that they don't know a Kit, they only know a Howard. Once he is on school property, he is Howard. I had to take him to school (late) one day, and as he was walking down the hall I called to him. I called three times before I gave in and called for Howard. He turned right away. I guess I need to call him Howard at home if I want his attention. (Kinneret and Cordelia just call him Kitty.)

Kyle doesn't have a nickname at home. At school, for some reason, the faculty and staff call him Kyle T. On one spelling test, he put "Mr. Fox" on his paper. Last year, Kyle was unhappy with the Southern Drawl pronunciation of his name. He started spelling his name Kiyle because he wanted everyone to pronounce his name using the long I sound and two syllables: Kie'-yel. For some reason, even though he was born and raised (so far) in the South, he could still detect the southern accent and only heard people calling him Cow.

Now comes Cordelia. Both she and Kinneret have long names. And they are usually Kinneret and Cordelia. Sometimes we shorten them to Ret and Delia. Kinneret is fine with it. Cordelia, on the other hand, started correcting us this last weekend. She has been letting us know that her name is NOT Delia, it is CORdelia. Kyle tried to explain that "Delia" is a nickname but she wasn't going to give in. Later, I heard her discussing it with herself and then she told me that Delia was a nickname and she liked nicknames. I was glad that was over. Until today - her name is NOT Delia, it is CORdelia!