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Wednesday, September 05, 2007

and so it begins, and: a rhyme

You always want your kid's name to be their own. I don't mean some made up name with apostrophes and numbers and a surplus of silent letters, but you want them to be their own, right? On the night that Curly was born, a nurse came into my hospital room. Glancing at my new baby, the nurse said, "Oh, she's so pretty. What's her name?"

"Curly," I replied.

"Oh!" the nurse said, "That's a pretty name. In fact, there are three Curlys in the nursery tonight."

Greaaaat.

We had jumped smack-dab into the middle of a popular-naming frenzy. Yippee. Is it immature to want to scream, "But we had that name FIRST! It's a FAMILY name!" Yes, I think so. But I still wanted to do it. I just had to give in to the likelihood that Curly would have to be known as Curly E. her whole life. Still, I had a glimmer of hope . . .

. . . which glimmer was squashed today.

I picked up Curly from her first day of kindergarten. Their school has options regarding their uniforms, and I was near sure she'd choose a plaid jumper, but instead she wanted to match her 3rd-grader sister: a red shirt, tucked into khakis with a black belt, navy knee socks and black shoes. She had had a bit of trouble this morning with the button on her pants ("It's slippery, Mom!"), and so I told her not to be afraid to ask her teacher for help if she needed it. When she climbed into the van before lunchtime today, I saw the sticker on her shirt: Curly E. it read, in the perfect schoolbook handwriting of her teacher.

"How was school, Sweetie?!"

"Good. Mommy, I have this sticker and my teacher has to call me Curly E. because, Mom, there are THREE Curlys in my class!"

"Three?!?"

"Yes, Mom, three. And I had a good time, and I went to the bathroom and got a few drinks at the water fountain and played on the little playground."

"How did you do with your pants? Did you need help?"

"Nope, I could do it all by myself, and very easily."

"Good!"

"Mom, did you hear what I said? Easily."

*thinking, oh, she used that word properly* "Alright!"

"Mom, it's a rhyme -- Easily, Beesley!"

16 comments:

Carina said...

I can’t believe she’s old enough to be in Kindergarten. That’s just nuts. Bonkers. I like how if you really say Curly E. fast, it sounds like its own name.

Anonymous said...

My husband, my "baby" and your eldest child are all in the same grade. How 'bout that?

I say good for you for naming Curly what you wanted to anyway. I always wanted a Madison. A good decade before anyone buy Daryl Hannah liked the name. But well, you know what happened. Everyone little girl and her goldfish was named Madison so I went with something that starts with an L~.

Lyle said...

Thank you for not naming your child ESPN

La Yen said...

Po Peasily.
Love,
Jenny J (one of five Jennys, three Jenny J's.)

C. Jane Kendrick said...

I am glad she's not too grown-up to forget her old primary teachers.

QueenScarlett said...

Wow... so you all had babies together and now live in the same school district. What are the odds?! ;-) *snarky, snarky*

Curly is so cute...I envy her curls.

Anonymous said...

funny you should tell this story and today of all days! today, i had an emma experience of my own along these lines...

my friend and i went and had lunch. conversation between me and much much older server:

server: welcome to mimi's. i'm emma and i'll be your server.

beans: hi emma. that's a pretty name. one of my favorites. it's my niece's name.

s: how old is she?

b: she'll be 6 soon.

s: (complete with eyeroll) yeah, well, my name is a FAMILY name so i'm partial to it.

b: (with a retaliating eyeroll) yeah well, so is hers.

i wanted to tell her to suck it but in end, she was the one handling my food.

Anonymous said...

k, so i left out the word "the" in that last sentence. in the end i wanted to tell her to suck it.

and my stomach has been paying all day for the albacore and avocado sandwich.

Tori :) said...

Awww... what a cutie!!
I never met another Alec until I moved to Utah. There was one right down the street from us!!
Try living in Texas when Selena was killed. There would be 3-4 "Selenas" in the pediatrician's waiting room at any given time.

More Caffiene, Please said...

Girl, you're living in the U.C. Right now there is probably 50 curlys being born at this very second. But none as cute as yours.

wendysue said...

Like. . .DUH Mom, get it? Easily, Beesley? duh. I'm SO a kindergartener.

I knew it was over when my oldest came home the first week from K singing. . ._______ amd ________. sittin in a tree. . .

Cari said...

At least your last name doesn't start with a "P". I was known as Cari P. my whole 3rd grade year. I should say, I was know as "Cari P's" followed by giggles. It's not a good memory.

Geo said...

Not to worry—she's already distinguishing herself with amazing feats of pants-buttoning and rapid vocabulary acquistion. Not to mention poetry skills.

Bek said...

Lu was one of 3 Laurens in her class each year so far...last year there were TWO Lauren B's. Go figure...

The reason I was called Becca as a child was b/c there were three Rebecca's in my Kindergarten class..we each got a different name.

You have such big girls!!

sue-donym said...

Such a cutie. Maybe she could be called THE Curly.

When the Princess was born, she wa born on Utah's Sesquicentennial day and the nurse thougbt I should name her Utahna.

Yeah, right.

Tiffany UnTwisted said...

I had this kid in my Sunbeam class. His name was Johnny. I would say he was slightly pricky, but it's only because he actually knew all the presidents of the church and probably the name of any prophet anywhere in the 3 good books, and I only know like 3 names period. :) Anyway, point is, the next year, I got moved into the next class for about a month, and I saw his records and his name was actually John E. Lalalala. I'm such a dork.