I had several people ask why I called my daughter Tater Tot in Twitter. Seeing as how the story is a smidge too long for Twitter, I said I would post it here. It’s probably a “had to be there” kind of thing, but here it is anyway…

Shroud has always said he has the memory of an elephant… a dead elephant.

About 8 years ago, I was in the kitchen cooking dinner when Shroud decided to take out the trash. The trash can was beside the big freezer we had in the kitchen and on the freezer was about half a 10 lb bag of potatoes. He asked me if the potatoes needed to be thrown away. I told him they were fine and I was about to use them. I had my back to him, facing the stove, so I couldn’t see what he was doing. Not even a minute later he grabbed the trash and the potatoes and took them out to the dumpster. When he walked back inside, I turned around and saw that the potatoes were missing. I asked him where the potatoes were and he instantly remembered I’d said I was going to use them. He was very apologetic, but Sara and I thought it was hillarious. He became Potato Brain from that point on.

Shroud ate tons of potatoes, so we always explained to people that he had to eat them to replenish. Many, many jokes were made at his expense… and at the expense of his potato brain.

About 4 years ago, Sara told one of her friends the story behind Potato Brain and together they shortened it to Tater. One day, Sara was calling Shroud Tater and her friend turned to her and said, “Does that make you Tater Tot?” I don’t think Sara was amused, but Shroud thought it was the funniest and cutest thing he’d heard in a long time.

For about 2 years, the tater/potato comments were slung back and forth between Sara and Shroud in good fun. I was always concerned it would be actual potatoes at some point, so I was relieved when it never went that far. However, Sara rarely calls Shroud Tater or Potato Brain in front of him any longer because she knows Tater Tot is soon to follow. She’s a full fledged teenager now and that’s just not cool. She sneers and it’s not much fun anymore, but we’ll never forget…

… and we’ll never let her live it down.