Jinx

For a few months now the boys have been calling our baby Jinx. This is largely due to two reasons.

First, they love to play the jinx game where you yell jinx after you say the exact same thing as someone else and can then only be unfreezed (and allowed to talk again) when someone says your full name.

And second and slightly more important - Charles often reads the Freddy books to them (a series of like 20 books he remembers reading as a young boy). The boys have been amused because two of the main characters in these books are Jack (a dog) and Charles (a rooster). Then out of the blue a character name Theodore (a frog)  has arrived which has gotten everyone in our family very excited. [Ed note: We are still waiting for an Adelaide - we may be waiting a while!] So at dinner a couple months back we decided that the baby should have a name of one of the characters from these books as well. We contemplated Freddy (a big pig), Henrietta (Charles's wife, a hen), Simon (a rat - but he is kind of rotten). But none of these compared to Jinx (a cat). The boys were then set that the baby should definitely be called Jinx. We have indulged them to this point. I hope they aren't disappointed on the actual day when the real name is revealed!

It is not unusual for Theo especially to say things about our baby, but he always says 'Jinx', not 'our baby'. For example, 'this will be Jinx's room' or 'this will be where Jinx sits'. Today he even told me that Jinx means 'gift from God'. I think he got this confused with Theodore! 

It has just dawned on me that this has taken off so much that this baby may have a nickname the day he is born! I guess that is one of the privileges of being a fourth child. There are worst things . . .