Billy / Billie / Olivia Cate

Olivia: "Do 'Bih-yee' saht wih dis yetter?" (holding up a "B" in the bathtub)
Me: "Yes!! Good girl!"

So the one day of being "Billie" at school** did stick a little bit...smart girl!! :)

She was determined to finish spelling "Billie" despite the fact that we have only one 'L' and one 'I.' We substituted a '7' and a 'Y' respectively.

**For those of you who missed The Saga, here's what went down:

Olivia is darn cute and LOVES to talk a lot (Grandma Marty can account for 30 minutes+ of Olivia's jibber jabber on the swing recently, and Nana and Pop recall the car trip to Georgetown during which we could barely cut into her monologue). We don't, however, understand all that she says, as her articulation is not fantastic.

Last April we had her speech evaluated, and heard she was "on track." Kids develop at different rates, and many sounds are not mastered until age 7.

At her preschool this fall, however, the Speech & Hearing Screen determined she should have some further evaluation. We took her back to Child Find for a more in-depth eval, and they decided she was on the cusp of needing some assistance. If we were interested in switching her to a public preschool, she'd receive free preschool and some speech intervention.

I visited the new school without and with Olivia; it is almost exactly 4 miles from us (and very near a drive-through Starbucks and "the Red Park"). The director and her assistant are fabulous, and the philosophy and activities are too. On the day we visited together, Olivia jumped right in and began shaving "Steve" the mannequin head, with real shaving cream (glad the school thinks that mess is fun!) at the salon learning center and she LOVED playing cashier, selling candy and real popcorn at the movie theater learning center.

Hoping this is all for the best, but sad to leave friends and teachers at the old school, we decided to enroll O at the new school, excited that she'll be getting intervention early.

A couple of cons to the sitchiation: 1) Zach now attends school five mornings a week from 8:30-11:15a, and O attends 4 afternoons from 12-2:30p. That doesn't leave much time to try to make O eat something for lunch, and does add up to some quality car time. 2) Before her arrival, there were already two 'Olivia's in her class. The teachers wondered if our O had any nicknames, and I shared that I call her "Billy" (not having ever spelled it, and mentioning that she wasn't super-thrilled with that name when I asked what she wanted to be called at school) or we could go with "Olivia Cate."

On her first day, the teachers greeted us, with, "Why, hello, Billy! Are you excited to start school here, Billy? Here's your coat hook, Billy." (Said coat hook was labeled "Billy.")

Gulp.

Olivia said, "My name is not Bih-yee. My name is Oh-yih-via, but you can cah me "Bih-yee." Sweet girl!

Despite her ready attitude, my stomach began to drop. "Billy" flashed at me on her attendance plaque, and play plan sheet, etc. They asked how I was feeling about her nickname, and I asked that we be allowed to think about it, and in the mean time please change it to "Billie" with an 'ie.' No problem, they said. "Billie, we'll just show you around..."

Talking to Scott ("Hmm, I'm not sure we want her to be called 'Billie' just because two other Olivia's beat us to her class") and friends ("She'll be like Miley Cyrus in a few years, legally changing her name because she's always been "Billie"), and chewing it over, I decided we needed to go with "Olivia Cate." I mean, otherwise she'd have been learning to spell and pronounce her name as "Billie." I started picturing her years down the road, in 6th grade and at graduation, introducing herself as "Billie." Personally, I LOVE the nickname, but I didn't want that to be her name officially unless she chooses to be that later in life.

So, identity crisis *hopefully* averted, she remains Olivia Cate. And she appears to be thriving in the new class. :)