A post about Nicknames

We love nicknames in our family...

For as long as I can remember, nicknames have been a way to show affection and familial familiarity. I think maybe my grandfather started it... He called us all "Lemuel". Or "Lemmie".  Don't ask. I have no idea. My father called us "Munchkins". I do know where that came from! I called my baby sister "Chickie" or "Chicken".  And then I had my own children...

Sofi: Her first name was Cricket. That child had hiccups for nearly nine straights months in utero. My belly hopped around like a Mexican Jumping Bean while she trampolined off every internal organ.

And then we called her Chickie. Or Chicken. Because I was still figuring out how to transition from Big Sister to Mama and it seemed appropriate to call her the same pet name I used for my First Baby-- my little sister, Tess. Who was really my third baby anyway, because Sam and Polly were my babies, too, really. And besides, she squawked and chirped with her hungry mouth opened wide, just like a baby chickie....



Judah: Oh my that boy had the bluest baby blues... and so we called him Judah Blue. Judah Blue Eyed Boy.



And the fat rolls!! We called him Judah Buddha. His Aunt Polly, Queen of Fat Rolls herself, once upon a longlong time ago, gave him that name. And Sofi started calling him just "Buddha" The chiropracter tentatively asked me one day... "Is his name...Buddha? Is that it?" And I laughed and laughed....

His mama still calls him My White-Headed Boy, because he is. And sometimes Scooter, because he did-- for the longest time. And his daddy calls him Buddy, and Little Man.

And now there's Jamie. And he has four people who all make up their own nicknames for him.

Munchkin

Precious

Capital-T-Trouble

Scoofle-noodle

Cuddle Monster

That Boy 

Bo-bo

Jo-jo (because of his inititals)

Scooter

Scooby-doo

Jamie-Jo

..and most recently my favorite, which somehow morphed out of some tongue-tripping combination of those last three names:


Subito




Jamie-Jo, My Subito...

Mermaid

(this is the second in a series of posts I'm writing about my Water Babies. you might want to read part one, part three, and part four, too)

Sofia is almost ten. She stands poised, as all ten-year-olds do, on the brink of young woman-hood, awkwardly suspended between adult and child. Vacillating between the two, rarely perfectly comfortable in either world-- the grass always green on the other side of the proverbial fence.

But in the water she perfectly straddles those two worlds, my graceful water-girl-woman. She glides and swoops and twists, mistress of herself. She feels, I think, a little safer, a little private, here in the water. She goes back to her imaginative games, elaborate plots and characters played out on the bottom of the deep end. Completely unconscious of any audience, or even any world outside these four concrete walls and 20,000 gallons of blue, she acts out her fantasies, her dreams.

I'm glad she has this place where she feels so Right. I remember all too vividly the wrong-ness that dogs one during those early teen years. A place where one feels one truly belongs is so important. When I watch her dart and glide and dive, I think perhaps we will survive these next eight years without too much heartache. Perhaps here in the pool we will always be friends. Perhaps we can come out and swim together and all the argumentation and conflict will wash away, untangled and smooth...





check out the other bloggers just writing with Heather...

Sofi's room: Update

I was browsing through old blog archives today, because I'm narcissistic that way I love to remember those moments, and I realized that I've neglected to keep y'all updated with the house interior for quite some time! In particular Sofi's room and the yards... I'll start with her room-- since it's the most complete in the house so far. Here are pics from today:

Looking in from the doorway:



Looking at the other side of the window:



The pin board in the picture above and the table below are our newest "do-overs". Susi, recognize that little table??



And the wooden name plaques are a birthday gift-- Thanks, Aunt Susi!!

Oh, my heart...

I saw a shadow of my young self this morning...

Long-legged, a little awkwardly confident, a little sassy. Her thick golden-brown braid thumps heavily against her shoulders, fly-away hairs trapped, for the moment, under a red headband. Tall, straight, her skirt a bit too short and snug as to waistband-- time to buy new uniforms. Again. She fills a hot pink coffee mug with ice water, slings her hot purple backpack over her shoulder, "Sign this, Mama!" And she glides off gracefully into the early morning.

Late, of course.

What else? You're mine, after all.

But I don't remember giving you permission to grow up...






Linking up with Just Write for this Tuesday. I habit I hope to continue...

They say the boys look alike....

...but actually, I really think he looks more like his big sister!

Look what we did today!

The other night, Sofi and I watched this. Then we got inspired to make these. And today....


WE DID IT!

They were awesomely delicious!

Real School; Day Two

Today was Sofi's second day of Real School. This means we were off the "first day high" and down to the nitty-gritty of what Real School actually is and how it compares to the first three grades at home, where (according to her nostalgic re-writing of history) any time we feel like it, we just take the day off school and watch movies and eat cookies. Or something like that.

Let's just say that at TGS they never take the day off to watch movies and therefore they suffer by comparison. She was bawling her head off within fifteen minutes of walking in the door. She hates school, she never wants to go back, she wants to homeschool again, she doesn't know any of the other girl's and she'll never learn all the different ways they do stuff.

At that point, being Me, a piece of me died inside and I vowed to myself never to make her go back. She's my little girl, my sidekick, my buddy for the last eight years and no one can take that away from me.

The more Adult side of me managed to keep all this from pouring out of my mouth, as I patted/kissed/cuddled. Judah joined in with the patting/kissing/cuddling and also with the crying-- he's such a tender-hearted little thing and hates to see Sofi or Jamie cry. Then Jamie, not to be outdone, began to protest in his highchair (I discovered later that although I had fixed his food, and actually brought it to the table, I had neglected to put it on his tray. So he was stuck there, starving to death, with food literally inches from his face.)

Count it out. That's three out of three crying within fifteen minutes of walking in the door this evening.

I sent J an SOS chat:

Come home now. Three simultaneous meltdowns in progress. I need you.

I gave Jamie his food. I gave Sofi a cookie. I held Judah on my lap. What else could I do?

This is really hard for me. I miss her. I miss having that spark of almost-adult conversation in my day. I miss watching her relationship with Judah-- that most precious gift that so long eluded us. I miss her sweet interactions with Jamie. I miss her helpful hands.

But I know at some point I have to stop depending on her so much. She has to grow more and more independent of me. She has to be 'Sofi', not 'Mommy's little girl'. She needs to make friends with her peers, and with other adults, too. She needs other influences in her life, other manifestations of authority, other opinions, other standards. She needs to gradually learn to stand on her own two feet.

It's going to be hard for both of us.




PS. By bedtime she was feeling much more positive about school and I think we managed to (with J's ever-practical assistance) iron out some of the difficulties and solve some problems. We'll see it goes tomorrow.

My Girl

She asks, "Mama, can we watch The Amazing Race together tonight?

"I don't think so, sweetie, I have enough dishes and clean-up to keep me busy till way past your bedtime tonight..."

She sighs and humphs out to the living room to play Battle for Wesnoth with Daddy, instead.

A few minute later she sidles back in and asks if she can clear the table for me, or rinse some dishes... Twenty minutes later we finish up the kitchen together and snuggle on the couch for our show.

"Wow, Sofi, we did that so fast! It's so nice to have help in the kitchen in the evenings. It makes my evenings so much more relaxing... thank you!"

She wiggles shyly, praise always makes her bashful, "Well, I was going to play Wesnoth with Daddy, but then I got to thinking how overwhelming it must be to face all this work every evening, so I thought I'd come help you instead."

She has such a soft heart. I pray that the hard knocks and growing pains of the next ten years don't harden it up...

Catching up with some random stuff: Sofi's dance recital

I realized that there are a bunch of photos and vids that I didn't post over the last months of moving and craziness, so I'm going to kind of jam them all into a few posts. This is all mostly for the doting grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins (and the crazy-old Great-Aunt, can't forget her *wicked grin*), although the rest of you are welcome to coo over my brilliant, talented and extremely photogenic children as well.


Sofi's Irish Step Dance Recital:

Please excuse the shaky videography-- pregnant woman on her knees with camera upheld over the heads of other camera-happy parents...

This was Sofi's last recital (of five) with her beloved Miss Cindy. We will miss you, Miss Cindy! There will never be another teacher like you!

The Hot New Show Off Broadway

It's this awesome version of the old classic "Cinderella", but with a modern twist!

In the second scene, Prince Charming goes rogue and starts karate chopping Cinderella ("peschaw, peschaw, peschaw!!!"), while the producer/director/fairy godmother hisses horrified remonstrations from the wings. Cinderella screams for help for about fifteen seconds and then body-slams the Prince into the mattress formerly representing the ballroom floor. A general free-for-all ensues ending with the producer/director/fairy godmother stomping off the stage pronouncing "I GIVE UP!" and Prince Charming crying for Daddy, while Cinderella prevails due to sheer body weight advantage.


Best reproduction EVER!


Congrats to Sofi on her producing/directing/fairy godmother debut :)

Overcome by Nostalgia

And now, friends, you can be too! Join me in a nauseating wallow in sweetsweet memories :)



















































By the way, Sofi is the baby in all those pics.