The names

A person’s name has great power .My dad told me a story of my nicknames. He said his mom cautioned him on the amount of nicknames he used with me. She said I wouldn’t know my own name because he so rarely used it. Her apprehension was, of course, for not. I love my name and embrace it and all the nicknames I have acquired along the way. They are all part of who I am.

  

We have never really called anyone by their real name for long. Since we’ve been together, all of our animals get a name that sticks for about two weeks before they get a nickname. The Nickname starts to morph and grow as the pet gets more personality. It was the same with our Daughter.

Some of the noteworthy ones have made it into the story. Here they are with a little history.

Little Face – This one comes from my childhood. My parents (when they were married) were so sickeningly sweet with each other that they had to curb their pet names. Sweetie face, Honey face, Angel Face, Lovey face and every other incarnation got shortened to just “Face”, or at least that’s the story I got at a tender age. I liked this covert lovey-ness of it. When I saw my daughter for the first time and how little she was (she actually was not tiny 22 ½ inches) it wasn’t long until I was calling her Little Face.

Squid – This is one that has stuck around for a long time. People usually think it has to do with me being in the Navy. But it actually is a combination of Squishy Kid. It might actually go back a little further then that though. I have a cousin named Josh. He eventually got the name Squashy (Because you know everyone needs another name). Most summers growing up we went camping. One summer in particular seemed to have more kids than usual. Squashy and I hung out a lot with the other kids. His name spread to a few of the others and soon all the girls were squirrels (squashy+girls) and all the boys were squids (squashy+kids). At least that was the first Squid nick name. Zephira just inherited it.

Grumpasaurus – Pretty self-explanatory. Just like most toddlers (or every human on earth) Zephira gets cranky when she is hungry. Some of her hunger attitudes were reminiscent of Dinosaur tantrums. This was just one of the creative names we came up with to try to soother her inner beast until we could get some food in her.

And of course:

Little One Feather - Zephira has always been unbelievably excited about things she finds. Rocks, leaves, shells, you name it. If she finds it, it is the greatest thing. One day (when Grammy was visiting) she found a feather in the back yard. I told her she had enough found nonsense and she could leave it alone. Grammy of course was going to have none of that. Her grand daughter got what she wanted. Grammy put the feather in her hair and said "here you go little one." To which Zephira replied "Little One Feather"

And Thanks For Playing. You Made it to the end of this Journey. Please take this quick survey about your experience: Here