What's In A Name?

"You want to know what's weird about us Sissy?" Peanut looked reflective. "We call each OTHER Sissy!"

"Right!" Sissy laughed. And then Peanut was laughing too, and they were both shaking their heads and looking at each other like - "Who DOES that?"

It's true. Around here both girls share the name Sissy. It makes things a little simpler. "Tell Sissy to come here a minute", or "Why don't you show Sissy your new trick?" is so much gentler to the brain cells than attempting the correct name.

Sometimes it can lead to momentary confusion though. Like this morning - I was telling Sissy I was going to write in my blog about her. She looked very pleased.
"Are you going to put my name in it?" she wanted to know. Before I could answer she frowned. "Hey! Have you EVER put my name on your blog?"
"Not your real name," I told her. "On my blog I call you Sissy".
"Right"...., she nodded, then looked puzzled, "..... and you call Sissy.......?"
"Peanut" I answered.
"Right." Satisfied now, she walked away but was back in seconds.
"But do you think they know you're not talking about a REAL peanut?"
"Umm, I think so, yeah".

When choosing blog names for my kids, I could have called them both Sissy, but in print it would have been just too much. So I thought of using their father's special nicknames for them .

Only the 8 year-old's nickname contains part of her real name, so using it would have defeated the purpose of a secret blog identity.

That wasn't a problem with the 6 year-old. So it was decided. In the world of Raising Butterflies, the 8 year-old would get the default-female-sibling name , and the 6 year-old would be known by her nickname.

And that's how Sissy became Sissy and the other Sissy became Peanut.

I just hope all this time it's been clear that I haven't been writing about a REAL peanut.