Never mind what I named them, I now live with Kat and Day-Hay.

When we were small, my brother and sisters and I used to invent entire towns. We�d draw maps and name all the streets in town. We�d name the schools, the restaurants, and the parks. We�d name the teachers and all the students in the school. And all of them stayed named.

When I was a bit older and had a long, lonely walk to junior high, I told myself stories about a group of friends. I named their parents, their siblings, and I named them. And all of them stayed named.

Perhaps that�s why I never anticipated that my children would not stay named. Oh, they started out like any other children�with nice, solid names carefully picked by their parents. Their dad and I spent the months before they were born, writing down names, saying names, combining names. We carefully picked out an appropriate boy�s name and an appropriate girl�s name for the oldest and then, because she was a girl, used the girl�s name. We even picked out two sets of boys� names and two sets of girls� names for the younger one before we lost her twin. After the loss of the twin, we recombined the names some but that meant that the decision reflected deeper thought.

One would think that, after all that thought, these children would stay named. One would think wrong. The nicknaming powers in this house are just too strong. Sara Katherine is a lovely name but, at varying times in her life, that child�s been called Munchrat, Sasha, Sashi, Sasharooney, Magoo, and Skate. Danielle Melissa is also a lovely name but, at varying times in her life, that child�s been called Munchrat, Dani, Danimelt, Dano, and McGort. Is it any wonder that they now are Kat and Day-Hay?

Maybe I should just go with the flow. Do you think I can convince people to call me �Saint?�

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