Names (every day in May)

I chose my children's names carefully. Well.. I edited a shortlist from which my husband chose their names if we're being totally correct - but we did put a lot of thought into said shortlists! We made sure the meanings held great value to us.

Mr Z's name means 'defender of mankind'. We wanted him to be strong and to care for others.

Miss Piggy's means 'Christmas child'. When we arrived to be induced, the hospital was adorned with decorations and she left covered in glitter. Plus... she was kind of  ... a 'gift'.

Small Boy was named for someone who encouraged others to love justice, live with kindness and live humbly. We thought that sounded like the sort of person we would be proud to call our son.

So... you'd think I'd actually use these beautiful and carefully chosen names. Evidently not.

They have loads of nicknames, my offspring. Piglet, Miss Piggy and Piggle - all newborns are like squealing little pigs with their soft pink noses snuffling about.

The big one, the pink one and the small one - from when we used to talk in code (such codes have long been abandoned since the big one and the pink one learned to spell).

But most often I refer to them as Piglet (the kindest of the animals in the Hundred Acre Wood), Noodle (I think that one evolved from 'nudist' when she was going through that stage that all two year olds go through), and Boozy (he used to wobble like a little drunk man before he found his balance, poor darlin).

They don't seem to mind.

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I might add, my relatives rarely ever call me by name. My grandparents call me petal or flower or blossom, my mum 'Milly' (for Milly Molly Mandy), my sister 'Neen' or 'Neenee' (hence my blog address), my brother has called me all manner of weird names (including 'Hemp' when I was first going through my earth-loving environmental stage) and my hubby has a pet name for me that I later found out is a Sri Lankan name for the boogey man. I've forgiven him!

Terrible mother?

I'm not very good at reminding the tooth fairy to leave money, so we've come to an agreement that he*/she will only visit once my children have left a little note. That guarantees I've got at least 48 hours to get my act together!!!

Last week, Miss Piggy's front teeth fell out. Hubby and I were up late trying to work out how to... ahem.. contact the tooth fairy when we realised that in all the haste of writing a letter, our little princess had inadvertently literally lost her teeth!

We searched high and low through her bed, under pillows and stuffed animals, under the bed amongst all the weird and wonderful things that lurk there. Under all the clothing on her floor. Under the mess of hair stuff on her desk.

No joy.

And the realisation that our little princess is as untidy as her mother. Well... I guess we don't call her Miss Piggy for nothing.

So here's what the tooth fairy ended up leaving her:

The following morning in my classroom, when the tale was told (joyously, I might add, by Mr Z) I copped a lot of scathing looks from my students who obviously think the tooth fairy is a little bit of a bitch harsh. Harsh but fair, I prefer to think.

I certainly got lots of messages of congratulation support from FB friends! And a few denouncing the fairy as a 'meanie'.

Hmmm... I'm conflicted. Pure genius..? or pure evil..?!

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* Having seen The Rock in Disney's The Tooth Fairy, my children are absolutely convinced that Dwayne has our house on his route. They've asked for him by name in their notes!

Toothy pegs

It's all about the teeth round here. Mr Z has finally lost that first wobbly tooth - hooray! I was starting to get worried as it had been wobbling forever and his adult tooth was coming through behind it - his smile was becoming a bit reminiscent of a shark, if you ask me! I didn't get a picture of the wobbly tooth (wasn't allowed) but here is his very first grown up tooth in all its glory:

Unfortunately, when the tooth fairy visited she must have been drunk or something as she didn't leave any money. I've told Z he'll have to write a letter pointing out her mistake. Since his least favourite thing to do is writing, it's bought me some time to go and get gold coins at the bank (wink, wink). I was considering keeping their first teeth (still not sure if that is creepy and/or weird) but I guess that's not an option now... no way I'm going... ahem... looking for that thing!!! Maybe I can keep the second one to fall out instead (if it's all right with the fairy)

Meanwhile, the Small Boy now has four teeth (which incidentally 'hit') but he's not letting me get even a small peep at those:



I'm just hoping Little Miss doesn't want a piece of the action once she realises that wobbly tooth = a gold mine ;)

Christmas traditions...

Growing up, our families celebrated Christmas in very different ways. Hubby's family had a Christmas Eve celebration with presents and food into the wee hours of Christmas morning while my childhood Christmases were very different. It has become very important to me to build some traditions into the family we've created. Here are some of my favourite things to do at Christmas:

1. Christmas lights drive - Our very first date, we went around town to look at all the lights. We make sure we do it each year. Sometimes it's on the anniversary of our first date, sometimes it's Boxing Day (although we do usually try to get there before Christmas day)

2. Decorating the tree - one person picks the colour scheme, we all decorate while listening to Christmas music, being silly and having fun. This year Mr Z picked the colours and we were able to use the very first decorations we ever bought, 13 Christmases ago (blue)

3. Gingerbread - Whether it's trees or men, N and I have come to enjoy doing this job together. This year we made some for Z's classmates, next year we'll need a whole lot more!

4. Church - this year we went to Christmas Eve Mass with Hubby's family.

5. Food! The kids each get to choose something to eat on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Miss Piggy chose kiwi fruit and chocolate cake, Mr Z wanted pancakes and blueberries.

6. Recording our memories - the kids line up so we can mark their height on the pantry door, and everyone gets a picture taken under the tree.

7. Our new tradition - now we're a complete family of five, I want to choose one special decoration to hang each year. This year we went out and bought a silver snowflake - after much umming and ahhing (and bickering). Not quite the relaxing experience I was looking for, but you have to start these things and let them settle in to tradition... or not! We'll see!