Monday, October 02, 2017

Names

On Saturday we drove up north to visit Son, Daughter-in-Law and Granddaughter-the-Younger. Daughter 1, Grandson and Granddaughter the Elder came too. Daughter 2, whose baby is due towards the end of October, isn't coming up again from London before the due date in case the baby arrives early, in the wrong city. It's a very strange thought that the next time Daughter 2 is here, she'll be a mum. But it may be quite a while before she can come. Train journeys with small babies can be fraught.


The baby will be Granddaughter-the-Youngest. All this nomenclature is a bit complicated. Maybe I should just use their ages: Grandson (6) - mind you, he's the only grandson; Granddaughter (4), Granddaughter (1) and Granddaughter (0). Or the initials of their surnames? That would make their relationship to each other clear, I suppose. Grandson and Granddaughter W; Granddaughter D; Granddaughter P. But it's not much clearer in any other way, unless I use the same initials for their parents.


I'm sure no one else really cares but I have to call them something and it doesn't seem a good idea to use their actual names. Frogdancer gives her four boys completely plausible names which nevertheless aren't theirs, which made it confusing (for me) when she and I met, since she naturally referred to them by their real names. And Stomper Girl gave hers nicknames, and then when we became Facebook friends and I learnt their actual names, it took me ages to get used to them.


Anyway. We spent a long time in the playpark on Saturday and while you couldn't exactly say that the siblings played with their cousin, we were all in approximately the same place.  Granddaughter-the-Younger can walk confidently now.


Afterwards we went back to Son's and the children all drew. Granddaughter-the-Younger can hold a crayon and make scribbles (so talented). I don't think it occurred to me to give my children crayons when they were newly one, but possibly I did. It's been a while.




Anyway, she's a beautiful child, as you can't tell from the photo. I wish we could be more part of her life. But we're so lucky to be quite a big part of the Edinburgh ones' lives. You can't have everything.

9 comments:

  1. I'm quite use to your nomenclature for the grandson, I find it amusing.

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  2. I know who your grandchildren all are so don't change it. Even though they are on opposite side of the globe it is good that someone is producing girls.
    This morning I visited a friend who has a new 1 month old grandson.Her 6th . (All boys.)
    My little grandson's other Grandmother has 8 Grandsons.
    They might need spouses or partners!

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  3. Tricky but, whatever you decide to go with, I'm sure I'll keep up. Just the one grandchild here (he doesn't live near us). One of my friends is all set to double her total as one daughter has three children and the other is about to have triplets.

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  4. Indeed Isabelle - interwebby pseudonyms can be very confusing!
    Loth

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  5. I understand the wish for anonymity..I would love to talk about my beautiful granddaughter but it is not my way to be so open on the blog...your little ones are all adorable and seem to be growing so quickly!

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  6. Ahhh, the old name-in-public debate. I do nicknames, although, I doubt I'll be lucky enough to have as many grandchildren as you do, so it's not confusing. I like the idea of putting the ages behind the names. Your current scheme works wonderfully, but I'm wondering if you might run out of names when more granddaughters arrive LOL.

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  7. I just use real names, so as not to confuse MYSELF. But I can understand your hesitation when they are young children. My two are already splashed all over the internet for various reasons. When/If I have grandchildren, I'll need to make a decision about names, but I don't think I'll have very many which will make the naming easier. :)

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  8. I don't know many bloggers in real life, but do now know one of their real names and the real names of two of the children belonging to another and they are so different from the ones that I am used to. But I absolutely respect the need for a child's privacy. Especially after seeing Goodbye Christopher Robin. A fascinating story of the effect of becoming public property even in pre-internet days.

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