What's in a nickname

I never really had a nickname growing up. Well, unless you could consider "Debbie" instead of "Deborah" a nickname, which it really wasn't. No, I mean cute pet names and things like parents call their children - you know, "Buddy", "Princess" and all of that. I was just always "Debbie" and to my family I still am. In fact, I didn't start going by "Deb" regularly until 10 years ago when I started a job where there was also a "Debi" in the office and mine was shortened for convenience. And it stuck, so "Deb" I've been ever since (except to my family, of course!) It's similar with my brother - Donald, Donnie, Don. Our family are the only ones who still call him "Donnie" and he'll always be my little brother "Donnie" to me, just like I'll probably always be big sister "Debbie" to him.

From the time our kids were born though, we've called them by just about everything except their given names! For example, Abigail has always been "Abby" to the point where she insists that "Abby" is her full name and "Abigail" is her nickname instead of the other way around. When she was a baby we always called her "Abby-girl" or "Bitty Girl". Around the time that Hannah was born, we started calling Abby "Munchkin" and that's been her nickname ever since. We change it up sometimes as "Smunchkin" too, but she answers to either of those just as much as her own name.

Hannah was such a tiny newborn compared to Abby - Abby had been 9 pounds 2 ounces and Hannah was only 7 pounds 6 ounces! From the very beginning we called her "Peanut" because we almost didn't know what to do with such a tiny (to us, anyway) baby. And "Peanut" she's been ever since, or sometimes "Peanut-girl". Even though she's hardly tiny anymore, it's just stuck. We also call her "Hannah Banana" because it's cute and because I figured that she'll hear it enough anyway that she may as well get used to it as a term of endearment rather than possibly hearing it in a mean way later on. The coordinator of children's programs at our church has expanded that to "Hannah Banana Potassium" which she laughs at because it's so silly. And I've also called her "Hannah-bear" since she was a baby too.

I wondered during my pregnancy with Becca what we would choose as a nickname for her. Nothing really came to mind until somehow she just became "Punkin" to me during our hospital stay after she was born. Ron jokes that it should be "Punchkin" since that's what you get if you mix "Munchkin" and "Peanut". And she's also been "Becca-boo" from the beginning too and I've expanded both of those to the point where I'll call her "Boo", "Punkin-boo" or "Boo-kin" on a regular basis. She answers to any of those as easily as she does to "Becca".

I can just see calling my 30-year-old daughter "Boo" or "Punkin-boo" years from now - I think that'll end her up in therapy if nothing else does, LOL. And I'm just waiting for the day for my teenagers to go, "Awww Mom, don't call me that!". But hey, I earned the right to call them as many cute names as I want through pregnancy, labor, delivery, years of sleep deprivation and diaper changes!

What about you? Do you have cute pet names or nicknames for your kids?