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Our Baby’s Name Was Perfect Until We Met Her
‘What’s in a name?’ you ask
We wanted an elegant and sophisticated name for formal occasions but one that could also be shortened into something quirky and fun for everyday use. We’d privately chosen Samantha and planned to call her Sammie for short.
In my mind’s eye, I could see myself palling around with my little peanut, Sammie, on our many adventures. In these fantasy outings I concocted in my head, her mother had often dressed her in overalls instead of a dress, and she dragged a little stuffed monkey around with her.
With no real point of reference having lost my own father at age three, I don’t know why I pictured fatherhood that way. I just did.
She could wear a dress to church and be called Samantha, but for our daddy-daughter outings, my Sammie needed to be ready to get a little dirt on her knees. She also needed to know how to defend herself in a scuffle just as well as pose for a photo. I’d leave the posing to Mom, but I planned to show her a few tricks that would come in handy in those inevitable scrapes all kids get into.
A couple of years after her birth, in a moment that was simultaneously cringy and pride-inducing, I’d discover her M.O. for handling conflict at what was supposed to be a congenial neighborhood gathering. After…
