Of names and teeth

Discussing names with my rather commonly named colleague Steve Thomas, we stopped by the ever useful Social Security Administration Baby Names site. There we found that, as he suspected, Stephen in all of its canonical spellings has declined in popularity in recent years. And rightly so.

Natalie, on the other hand, continues to skyrocket, having reached #19 in 2004, up from #34 when ours was born lo those five years ago. And it was #5 in California last year, which I might consider to be a good thing if I were in marketing. It just goes to show you, you think you're being all smooth and distinctive and here comes the horde right behind you, sipping on Fruitalattes and dipping their wasabe infused french fries in free range olive oil. God how I hate that stuff.

And so, five years or so after birthing our Natalie goes to the dentist who tells us that her chipped front tooth is from grinding. Grinding. At the age of five. What's up with that? Am I so stressed out by the many charms of my wondrous career that I should be transferring stress to her so that she be grinds her teeth so? And now she doesn't want to snuggle half the time at nights after I read her and Graham books, and when she does, she doesn't even bother to lay on top of my back to stop me from getting up, and then demand that I tell her a magic phrase of her own concoction before she'll release me. And today is the last day of pre-school. These are indeed uncertain times...