NickName Game

First off, I must apologize ahead of time to anyone in the following blog who might find themselves feeling embarrassed or harassed as a result of the stories I am about to share (namely my parents and my husband who I am hoping are good sports). I am sorry but I just had to share...

On my side of the family we tend to call each other funny little names to tease each other just for the fun of it. I dunno, it's sort of a weird family tendency but there it is. Well anyways, this little habit has not been lost on Bree. She picks up on these types of things pretty quickly. So, we have to be careful how we refer to each other if we don't want Bree picking a silly/embarrassing nickname to permanently call someone.

For example, my poor dad is now often referred to as "Stinky Pete" by Bree. See, "Stinky Pete" is from one brief line in Toy Story 2, which we happened to be watching one time when my parents were visiting and my Mom and I thought was an amusing name to teasingly call Dad the rest of the day. And ever since then, more often than not poor old Grandpa Randy, aka "Papa Granny" (as if that one weren't bad enough), gets referred to as Stinky Pete.

My Mom doesn't get off though. She is now and forever deemed "GooGoo Baby." Now, that one comes from a game that Bree was playing with her Grammy one day where Brianna got to be the mommy and Grandma was supposed to play the baby. Of course, my mom is the type who's more than willing to indulge her grandchild and play along. And so, there she was happily replying "goo goo" to whatever Bree said. In fact, whenever Grammy tried to talk in words Brianna corrected her. "You're supposed to say 'goo goo' Grammy!" Hence the name "GooGoo Baby."

This particular nickname thing seems to only apply to relatives on my side, (even my cousin Amy got dubbed "Evinrude" when visiting one time). And, I'm sure much to their relief, Trav's parents have managed to escape such nicknames so far. Thus, when Bree lists off her grandparents it goes like this, "Papa Roger, Grammy Deb, Stinky Pete and GooGoo Baby!"

Even Travis is not exempt from this nickname thing... The other day he wanted to make Bree laugh and so he did a silly little dance. "Your dad is a weirdo," I said to Brianna. "Tell him he's a weirdo!" Obediently she said, "You're a weirdo!" "Make that Dr. Weirdo!" he replied. (Insert reference to one of Trav's favorite "adult cartoons" AquaTeen Hunger Force here.) And so now, on a fairly regular basis Bree will stroll up to her father and start a sentence with, "Hey Dr. Weirdo..."

Oh well, it does keep the conversations pretty interesting when you're talking about such characters as Stinky Pete and Dr. Weirdo. And naturally, we only use these little nicknames in the most loving and respectful way possible. :P