Brain Fertilizer

Noel is her name? That is such a lovely, feminine name.

I'm struggling with the spelling of it. Everyone who just sees it without knowing her gender thinks it's Noel, rhyming with Joel, and thinks it's a boy's name. But the Christmas word is pronounced Noel, and in fact, she was named more than a year before she was even conceived as we were driving around looking at Christmas lights one evening. People seem to want it spelled with an extra 'le' to pronounce it that way without prompting.
I never wanted to give my kids a troublesome name. I guess she'll decide what she wants to do with it by the time she gets to high school...

Hmm, then I said it correctly.

I started going by my middle name when I was fifteen. It stuck. I still sign my first name and middle initial. I like Rae- it is unique, but my first name is so feminine sounding that I occasionally do miss hearing it.

Noel is lovely.

Remember, Nate, just like anything else, practice makes perfect. Besides, I am sure that the people at her daycare see you as the single, attentive daddy that you are...and smile. :D

Oops, was thinking of the elastic/ponytail situation with that last line.

Your meaning was clear to me.

I've talked to the daycare monitors, and I seem to have their sympathy, if not empathy.

They have standing orders to tell me if there's something I'm missing cuz I'm an ignorant daddy. The thing that seems to get them the most irritated is that I don't give them medicine for colds.

My thinking is that cold medicine doesn't help 'em get over it any quicker, and usually doesn't even do much for runny noses or coughing, so it's little more than a placebo for kids too young to understand what it's supposed to do. Extra water, extra sleep, and let it run its course, I believe.
The only medicine I ever give the kids is stuff that cures. Or if the coughing gets bad enough to keep them awake...but that hasn't happened yet.

We don't just gratuitously hand out the tasty stuff either. However, I do run a humidifer in the girls bedrooms and that works wonders. Also, if a cough is interupting sleep I will administer a little Triaminic, but other than that, nothing wrong with a tissue.

The Daycare workers just like the meds 'cause they make the children sleep real good.