Paola's full name is Ana Paola, but we had always inteded to call her Paola which we loved. It has caused some confusion because in a lot of situations she is initially called by her first name, so with the other kids we made sure we were going to call them by their firt name. What we didn't expect is that our daughter would be wanting to decide what we should call her at such a young age. Since last year she has been signing most of her school papers as Ana, and she has gotten into a few tiffs with friends who think she is making that part of her name up. But recently she has taken it another step and started introducing herself as Ana as well including today on the first day of school. It is partly because she likes the name, but also because she feels like being called her middle name while the rest of the family is called by their first name is somehow unfair. It is hard for me to change partly because I like Paola or even Ana Paola better than just Ana for her, but also because it is hard to get out of the habit of calling her Paola after 5 years. But she really does put a lot of thought and emotion into her decisions, so I am going to try to respect her wishes (even though she is ambivalent) and try to introduce her as Ana or at least Ana Paola from now on.
As an additional humorous note - not to be outdone but not really understanding Paola's arguments, Kobe announced in middle of Paola's conversation that he was upset that no one called him by his middle name, Gray, and that now we had to call him that or he wouldn't love us. Giving his penchant for saying stuff just to copy Paola, I'm pretty sure we are still safe calling him Kobe.
Your kids are way to smart for their own good :). My favorite part of this story is not only that Kobe said he wanted to be called Gray, but that he "wouldn't love you" if you didn't!? And just think...they aren't even teenagers yet!!
Posted by: Tia Maria | August 30, 2006 at 09:07 PM