A Kid by Any Other Name is Still a Kid

I was sitting at my daughter's soccer game last night, listening to parents cheering on their kids, when I realized that a lot of today's popular names weren't even around when I was a child. I can't remember knowing a single Kayla, Kaylie, or Kylie when I was a tyke, but they're everywhere now. Or Cheyenne. I never heard of a girl with that name until last year, when I noticed THREE throughout the summer on the soccer fields, although to be fair, one was spelled Sheyanne. Two of my daughter's friends are named Morgan; my best friends in junior high were Sandi and Diane. I love the name Michaela, but I haven't seen it spelled traditionally since my friend christened her baby 18 years ago. All the young girls with that name, and there are a lot of them, go by Mykayla now.

When I was little, boys were named Johnny and Randy and Kevin; they seem to have been replaced by Cody and Tristan and Brendon/Brandon/Brennan.

It's weird to think that my own name may some day be considered old-fashioned. Maybe it already is. I really don't know. Or care. 'Cause I'm that grouchy Old Lady Kim who leans out her window and shakes her fist at those pesky Jasmines and Parkers running across her lawn.



Dinner last night: spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic toast, green salad

Exactly one year ago:

There's No Place Like Home

Pleasantly Plump, Perfectly Coiffed

You asked for it . . .

Comments are closed, she murmured coyly.



Dinner last night: barbecue salmon, cous cous

Exactly one year ago:

Goodbye, Albuquerque, I Barely Knew Ye

Exactly two years ago:

We Have a Leftie

Pretending to Look Excited

I grew up in small town Alaska, where the sport of basketball rules, as it does in most of rural Alaska. In a few of our larger towns and in the big city of Anchorages, though, hockey is huge. The Alaska Aces recently won the ECHL National Championship and were awarded the Kelly Cup, which has been making its rounds across the state. The traveling Cup provides opportunities for sports nuts like my husband to force their wives to stand up in restaurants with the gargantuan trophy so their young children can snap blurry pictures on cell phones.

Seeing this very picture of myself prompted me to march straight to the hair salon and chop off all my hair. I'M NOT KIDDING.



Dinner last night: roasted turkey sandwiches

Exactly three years ago:

Things to Do with Your Kids This Weekend 9