A Rose By Any Other Name

Yesterday afternoon I stood in the parking lot of Beth's school waiting for the children to be dismissed. Another mother walked over to me and asked "You're Elizabeth's mother, right?"

I must confess, I almost said "no". Even though "Elizabeth" is the name that Dan and I chose for her almost 5 years ago, she has always been Beth to us. But when school started 3 weeks ago, her teacher labeled her name tags, coat hook, etc. with the name Elizabeth. At first, Beth was not happy. But I used a small bribe to entice her to learn to write her full name, and she did so very quickly. After that, she was fascinated with her new name. She asked us to call her Elizabeth, and she has started to introduce herself to new friends using her given name. It's not an easy thing for me to suddenly remember, so she still hears her nickname used around the house.

It seems funny to suddenly hear her being called by this "long" name...almost as if she's not my little Beth anymore. And in a way, I suppose this is true. She's not at all the same person that she was last year, last month or even last week. How much she has changed from the little Beth we knew only a few years ago! I realize that at some point I will look back at this time in our lives and miss my four-year-old Elizabeth, and all that she is right now.

"Our days glide gently and imperceptibly along, like the motion of the hour hand, which we cannot discover. We advance gradually; we are the same today as yesterday, and tomorrow as today: thus we go on, without perceiving it, which is a miracle of the Providence I adore"...Madame de Sevigne