How Tuey Got His Name (as Promised)

Months before Tuey was born, my sister asked the marmots (purely for entertainment purposes) what she and Marmot Dad should name the new baby. Madame 4-yr-old considered and decreed that a girl should be named Tullah and a boy should be named Lucy. Nice. So, we started referring to the baby as Tullah. Sometimes we even prayed for Tullah instead of for the baby.

Tuey enjoying a cupcake on his birthday last week.

And then the baby was born and given a completely different name and the little girls protested. Hadn’t we all agreed on Tullah? They REFUSED to use the baby’s name. They would only call him Tullah, and, this is my favorite part, at the time, both girls pronounced their ls as ns. Think about it. Yep, they called him Tuna. Fortunately, they’re very good at shortening the names of the people they love, so Tuna quickly became Tuey. Or Tooable Cooable. Or Baddy Boy. Or the Best Goodest Baby in the World (I think that’s how that one goes). Or sometimes he’s Baby Jesus and the girls run through the house yelling for him, and the rest of us wait for the lightning to strike.

Growing up, we had friends whose names (Mark and Alicia) I didn’t know for years, because we called them Dude and Weedy. I suppose Tuey’s in good company.