A number by any other name is January

I'm going to have to disguise this post a bit. My January daughter is a little shy about some things. Like attention. She's also brilliant so who am I kidding when I think I can disguise anything enough so she won't get it? She's the one who reads Margaret Atwood after me and figures out the "who dunit" long before I had in the book which of course is at the end. She is a scientist who loves research. She also figures out the whole plot of movies early on. She is at least kind enough to not share her thoughts until everyone's seen it. She's got her dad pegged. Well, maybe we all do. I have three daughters. But, her theories often come quicker and seem funnier.

Today she came to my school and delivered a chai soy latte, iced (my first ever) on her way home after her visit to another college. It's her spring break. The latte and she were both a little piece of mamma heaven. So... it's really hard to call her my middle daughter or my number two daughter or my second daughter. So limiting.

Pondering the adjectives for birth order last week, I decided I'd describe my daughters by their birth month instead of an ordinal number or other age superlative. "Hi, let me introduce my January daughter. She's a college student." "Have you met my August daughter? She's working for a publishing company and loves living in Charleston." "I know, can you believe my April daughter is graduating from high school? Remember when she was in that preschool in Oceanside?" Specific yet unbound by custom. Descriptive but with a bit of mystery left. Sassy yet sporty. (That last one, a family favorite for describing wine.)

I think this is going to work for me. I hope it does for the girls.