Musical Names

No, this is not a post about how often I mix up my own kids and call them by the wrong name. That number would probably be a tad embarrassing. Rather, this is about the names my kids come up with.

It never ceases to amaze me in how many places I see my kids' imaginations at work. We always have dolls laying around that get new names almost daily like Jenka, Nonni, Cowlin and many others. Those ones just happen to stick out in my mind because when we were name hunting for our youngest the kids suggested them and when we kindly rejected them they were then used on the dolls for awhile.

My youngest 2 have actually been naming things more consistently lately, although they all have their favorite names to use. J, our 6yo, is learning more what are 'real' names vs the jumble of letters she would use before so at the moment her favorite doll is just called Nancy (don't dare to call it Fancy Nancy though, she is quick to correct you) but she does still have Pengy her penguin and then her array of bears that simply go by Big Bear, Little Bear, Yellow Bear and Daddy/Mommy Bear (it's having a gender crisis). E, the 4yo, is really in to My Little Ponies for about the 3rd year in a row and pretty much everything is just called Pinky Pie, her favorite pony's name.

Then we get on to the youngest 2 finally. C, the 3yo, started a while ago and despite being upset it took us a few days to figure out what she kept asking us for and crying at night for. She has 2 stuffed puppies and 2 stuffed cats that she sleeps w/ (along w/ about 1/2 the toys she owns, all on a toddler bed) and we'd give her what she asked for each night. If you asked her where her puppy is she would get it right away so she knew what it was. Apparently calling them puppies though was not what she wanted, they are Woofies. And like her sister, if you call them puppies she will correct you and tell you they are her woofies and then she will go and get a little toy dog and tell you "dis a puppy". We've learned that one by now though.

M is our youngest, she's only 16mos but she is full of spunk. She doesn't talk a whole lot more then random yells and screams but we all know what it is she wants, she doesn't stop until you figure it out. Her favorite toy is a plastic whale that we got in the pool section of Target awhile back. She even sleeps w/ that thing. Again, if you ask her where her whale is she goes right to it and brings it to you but I realized last week that she'd named it and I hadn't been listening. She'd come up to me and jabber as usually but I could tell she was asking something and the word whoosh kept coming out. Finally one day she went in to her room while I was there pointed to the whale in her crib and said Whoosh while pointing, and the name Whoosh was born. I'm assuming it's a combo of whale and fish but it's complete speculation on my part. She also has 2 other toys that she recently got that as of today have a new name as well. She has 2 dinosaurs (she's really in to the plastic animals but she likes the tough looking ones) and I guess they are her Rars. Kind of like roars but they're Rar's. These dinosaurs also like to go around and pretend to eat every one's belly buttons, so watch out.

So, lesson for the day is to listen close to see what they call something and then do NOT try to call it something else after they've seen that you know the 'correct' name for something.