I'm not a big fan of nicknames. Especially when parents give their kids a name and then plan on calling them by a nickname. If you want to call your child "Katie" then name her Katie and not Kathryn. The argument I hear most often is "I wanted to give them a choice to use their full name when they were adults." A valid argument, I just do not agree with it.
Another issue on the name front that bugs me is the increasing use of boy names for girls- making them unisex. Seth was telling me about a new child in his class and he said "We call her 'girl Alex' because we already have a 'boy Alex'." How sad is that? For the boy and the girl. What boy wants to have the same name as a girl and likewise what girl wants to be called "girl Alex"? Please let the boys keep their names people!
Enough of my rant, the real reason for this post is Jonas. I wanted to document some things that he has been doing lately so I won't forget. In direct conflict of my detest for nicknames, my boys both have them (Maryn doesn't- we just called her "baby girl" for a long time until she wasn't the baby anymore). But unlike what I described above- these are more like "lovey" nicknames that we just use in the family and would never plan on calling them that outside of the home. Seth is "Seffers" and Jonas is "Joanie". This is also in conflict with my dislike for unisex names- because "Joanie" is a girls name (which doesn't necissarily make it unisex, it really is a girl's name). But nonetheless- Joanie it is. I'm not sure how it started, but it sure has stuck. I'm confident that he will grow out of us calling him that because we don't use "Seffers" name very often anymore, so I'm not too worried.
So now- back to the documentation. Just this week, at his eleventh month mark, Jonas decided that he didn't want to be swaddled anymore (yes, I was still swaddling him every time I put him to sleep). So I was at a real disadvantge because I didn't know how to get him to sleep anymore. You'd think that by my third child, I would have it figured out, but no- every child is different. So I followed the example of my sister and started a little bedtime routine. I take him into his room, turn on the nightlight, sing him 2-3 songs while rocking and then lay him down in his bed all the time saying "It's time for bed, Joanie, bedtime." On that first night, I walked out of the room, closed the door, and just stood there is disbelief- he didn't cry! Not one little peep! Amazing. Now he hasn't been that perfect every night, and nap times are harder too, but for the majority of the bedtimes- he layed right down and went to sleep without making a single noise. I'm not saying this to toot my own horn, because seriously all the credit should go to Jonas. He is just such a chill baby. Thank heaven for him.
One last shout out- Happy Birthday Ellena! What a big girl!
P.S. For those of you who inquired about my new background, I got it for FREE here.
Another issue on the name front that bugs me is the increasing use of boy names for girls- making them unisex. Seth was telling me about a new child in his class and he said "We call her 'girl Alex' because we already have a 'boy Alex'." How sad is that? For the boy and the girl. What boy wants to have the same name as a girl and likewise what girl wants to be called "girl Alex"? Please let the boys keep their names people!
Enough of my rant, the real reason for this post is Jonas. I wanted to document some things that he has been doing lately so I won't forget. In direct conflict of my detest for nicknames, my boys both have them (Maryn doesn't- we just called her "baby girl" for a long time until she wasn't the baby anymore). But unlike what I described above- these are more like "lovey" nicknames that we just use in the family and would never plan on calling them that outside of the home. Seth is "Seffers" and Jonas is "Joanie". This is also in conflict with my dislike for unisex names- because "Joanie" is a girls name (which doesn't necissarily make it unisex, it really is a girl's name). But nonetheless- Joanie it is. I'm not sure how it started, but it sure has stuck. I'm confident that he will grow out of us calling him that because we don't use "Seffers" name very often anymore, so I'm not too worried.
So now- back to the documentation. Just this week, at his eleventh month mark, Jonas decided that he didn't want to be swaddled anymore (yes, I was still swaddling him every time I put him to sleep). So I was at a real disadvantge because I didn't know how to get him to sleep anymore. You'd think that by my third child, I would have it figured out, but no- every child is different. So I followed the example of my sister and started a little bedtime routine. I take him into his room, turn on the nightlight, sing him 2-3 songs while rocking and then lay him down in his bed all the time saying "It's time for bed, Joanie, bedtime." On that first night, I walked out of the room, closed the door, and just stood there is disbelief- he didn't cry! Not one little peep! Amazing. Now he hasn't been that perfect every night, and nap times are harder too, but for the majority of the bedtimes- he layed right down and went to sleep without making a single noise. I'm not saying this to toot my own horn, because seriously all the credit should go to Jonas. He is just such a chill baby. Thank heaven for him.
One last shout out- Happy Birthday Ellena! What a big girl!
P.S. For those of you who inquired about my new background, I got it for FREE here.
13 comments:
Tina, girl, I hear you about the name your kids what you want to call them business. That is why our son is named OWEN not Phil Owen, etc. Boy did we have several arguments about that. I just don't buy it either. Like half of Derek's family goes by their middle names. It drives Derek bananas when I call him Phil too, so why is he so dang attached?
I too am in fear of all of these girls taking over boy names. My brother is named Ryan and that's not safe anymore either. We may have to go back to names like Ebeneezer and Brutus to keep our boys' names sounding strictly masculine.
I sure do miss you guys and wish you could come over. I'd cook you a yummy meal...How about it?
Joel is totally anti-nicknames. I don't mind so much. I call Sophia Sophie, and I would have named her Sophie, but Joel didn't like that. :) So, she's both...just whatever comes out of my mouth.
Anyway...good for the bedtime routine! I am not much of a routine person with my kids, but with Sophie I've had to be. It's really quite cute how she expects certain things at bedtime and she gets so excited when we do things in order because she knows they're coming. She gets mad if we do it out of order, too. :) And she goes to bed GREAT! Love it!
I thought I felt like you about nick names until it came right down to it for us. We were going to name the baby Graycie because that's what we planned on calling her, but I just had a really hard time with the idea of having an older child with a little girl name. We have been back and forth and finally decided to name her Grayce. I'm not sure yet what I will call her. It will probably be a little bit of both! Try not to judge us!:)
glad you were impressed with my snow. :) don't worry, it's really just that WIND BLOWS LIKE CRAZY so all the snow PILES UP WAY MORE THAN IT WOULD NORMALLY! still, too much for my liking.
and hooray for our "annie" keeping in with what you like. I completely agree. if she wants, as an adult she can shorten it to "ann." peace. :)
and to add to your success, 3 nights ago, zane's binkie got "lost." when I told him "it's okay, we can look for it tomorrow." he said, "okay." and went to sleep. no fight. :) and no binkie since. so hooray for all of us.
I have to confess that my Mom's parents might have started something when they named their two girls Beverlee and Shirlee. These were mainstream boy's names when they were born in the 20's. What were Newell and Lottie thinking?
are we related or what? i totally choose to never name my kids names that we intend on shorteningm besides the household love-names (can i get a holla-back chub?:))
love that joanie-boy. ellena misses her cousins. they are going to be at a great age to LOVE playing together when we come visit.
and hooray for bedtime! yes yes, thanks to me. only teasing- our bedtime lay-down-by-yourself-and-fall-asleep iis sometimes a hit and miss, but wwith pretty good success rates.
it's hard for me to believe that jonas wanted to still be swaddled for so long, my kids stopped being fans by about 3 months...i always think it was longer, but no it wasn't. i'm totally with you on the nickname thing, although we did name avery avery so do you hate us now:) i know people will think she's a boy on paper, it's frustrating but i love her name:) oh well...i am one of those silly parents...great job on the sleeping deal with jonas. that is seriously my biggest nemesis and we are conquering it at our house, on nap, one bedtime at a time. i'm with audrey, i sure do wish we could all sit down and have some good food together and talk.
So let it be written: I disagree with Tina in the names department. If it were up to me our next daughter would be named Alexis or Samantha very much so we could call her Alex and/or Sam. (notice this is in opposition to both her declarations). So there you go. Don't worry, we're still friends. She'll still be your friend too.
Dad and I were witnesses to Jon and Tina never being able to agree on a name for Seth. I don't think it was even for sure until the day they were leaving the hospital. Every week they were over for dinner it was a different name! Lots of lively discussions! Mom
Hi Tina, It's Michelle's friend, DJ. Names are very funny. I enjoyed your thoughts. Our oldest daughter is Brooklynne and the second one is Briannyn. I cringe if people call them Brook or Bri. It doesn't happen very often, but I detest it. However our 2 youngest are Joey and Jamilynn and they have a bunch of nicknames.Joey= Joe, Jo-Jo, Jo-Gee. Jamilynn-Jami of course and even James....what?....James....
what's that all about? Heck...what'd you expect from someone named DonaJane but has gone by DJ her whole life :)
Tina, if we ever have a daughter, her will be Charli Ann.....just thought I'd warn you ahead of time. !!! Your kids are dang cute!
brandi
I don't know if I have said hi yet. HI! I've been stalking your blog. I had to see how the other woman who had three kids under 4 was doing it???
Aren't you grateful for #3 being so mellow-I am! CC is the little cuddly bear in our family although she's recently found her voice and it's loud but adorable. Good to see you guys are all doing well.
Is your oldest going to Kindergarten next year. I'm very happy mine will be going. She needs something more than a tired Mom and two other rug rats to entertain her all day!
I totally agree with the girl taking on boy names thing. Drives me crazy. We talked about the name Taylor when I was pregnant with Caleb because it was Scott's great-grandpa but a few months before he was born my cousin had a girl and named her Taylor. Maybe it's silly but I didn't want our boy to have the same name as a girl.
Cute videos of your kids. Jonas is so big!
Post a Comment