What's in a name?

On the way to make rounds at the hospital this morning I was musing about nicknames and why we give them -- where they come from -- what they mean. All my kids had nicknames as babies which stuck for a really long time. I don't know where they came from, and we certainly didn't PLAN on calling them by their own special names. When I was growing up, my daddy called me "Pud" and my younger sister was "Snooks". Woe betide if he called one of us by the wrong name!! My mother called my sister "Rosy Apple" and for a while I was "Janny Pear." My brother was always "Ricker" and my youngest sister "Lynny Pin."

Our Jill was "Squirt McGirt" and "Jill-o-wee" (and on occasion, "Jilly Bean" which she absolutely despised). Torrey was "Old TB" and as she got older, "Torrey Bee" which morphed into Tobi which remains to this day. Timothy was Timo for years before he finally graduated to just plain Tim (Timmy or Timothy to his sisters). And of course, all the kids were, at varying times and places, Punkin' Pie, Lambie, Honey Bunny, and Sweet Cakes.

Which brings me to Christopher's nickname - recently bestowed as a result of a ransom note left in the refrigerator regarding some missing cookie dough....(I DO love my cookie dough!). It had been signed, "A drop of golden sun" and when I protested that a ray (his last name) was a beam, not a drop, he quickly reminded me of The Sound of Music. But he became The Beamer, none the less.

I must needs defend my choice....

1. The afore mentioned ray is actually a beam.

2. Chris' initials are C.A.R.

3. Torrey's favorite car is a BMW

4. Chris has a 50 megawatt smile, so that (especially) when he thinks about Torrey, he

5. BEAMS!


I rest my case.