Maddy

[M]y two children and my wife and I were sitting around the kitchen table, eating dinner. I was mid-transition. My older son, Zach, gave me a look.

"What," I said. He was 7.

"We can't keep calling you 'Daddy'," he said. "If you're going to be a girl. It's too weird."

..."Well," I said to my sons. "My new name is Jenny. You could call me Jenny."

Zach laughed derisively. "Jenny? That's the name you'd give a lady mule."

I tried not to be hurt. "O.K., fine. What do you want to call me?"

"The important thing, boys," Deedie said, "is that you pick something you're comfortable with."

Zach thought this over. He was pretty good at naming things. For a while we'd had a hermit crab named Grabber. Later on, we'd owned a snake named Biter.

"I know," he said. "Let's call you Maddy. That's like, half Mommy, and half Daddy. And anyhow, I know a girl at school named Maddy. She's pretty nice."

Go read the whole thing. And maybe keep a tissue handy.

[H/T to Shaker j0lt.]