Bilbur

You may recall, I have three children.

My oldest child is named Kylie and I tend to call her Ky or Kytito. Kytito is not a real word but rather a poor attempt to make her name sound Spanish. And my mother I believe was the first person to call her that.

My middle child is named Elizabeth. We call her Lizzie. Or LizzieLou. Or Lou. Or PooPoo. When we knew she was a girl I wanted to name her Beth after the character in Little Women. My mother referred to her once, when I was pregnant, as Lizzie. It stuck.

My youngest child's name is William. I fought against that name when I was pregnant because I don't like the name Bill. It sounds too old to me. We have tried numerous nicknames on him but none ever really seemed right. Billy. Will.Willy.Dolichan. Nothing.

Until his daycare provider called him Wilbur. William was just too big a name for such a small boy and so she took to calling him Wilbur. The other kids called him Wilbur. Then we did. Now he does. He responds better to Wilbur or the nickname Bilbur than he does to his own name.

Both grandmothers, Leslie and Linda, hate the name Wilbur. It sounds too old.

But I wish we would have named him Wilbur instead of William.

Bilbur is just perfect.

Sometimes you don't really know a child's name when they are born. You have to learn it over time and experience.