Lil' Donette
When we were considering names for Marlo and had nailed the list down to a solid four candidates, I always imagined that if we did name her Marlo I'd get to talk about my two kids, Lee and Lo. Maybe that's just the liberal arts major in me, daydreaming about the alliterative qualities of my children's names, or maybe that's just one of my more annoying qualities. Right up there with knowing every word to every song by Milli Vanilli AND BEING DAMN PROUD OF IT.
We've often referred to Leta as Lee Lee, but that's only one of several nicknames that we toss around. It's Lee Lee, and Leta-Loo, Scooter-Boo, and Jonny Jr. Many times it is, "YOUR DAUGHTER did this."
YOUR DAUGHTER ARMSTRONG.
I'm usually standing in the kitchen, one arm perched angrily on my hip, the other pointing at an intricate mess, and Jon is just standing there shrugging, because I guess this? This mess? This is nothing. You should have seen the way he traced the lines on his mother's faux marble countertop with a black permanent marker! Creativity is to be celebrated!
Really. Because I remember when creativity was to be smacked with a belt.
And so I thought Marlo's nickname would instantly be Lo. But that isn't even anywhere near the top of the list. Leta calls her Mario. Jon calls her Mar-Mar. And when I see Marlo's face the only word I can muster is BUTTERNUT! I imagine that this is terribly confusing to her, all of us screaming different names her way. She could quite possibly grow up thinking her name is COCO!!
However, I do think she is catching on to the M sound in her name, or maybe, JUST MAYBE, she knows how to say Mama:
Message to Jon: I WIN!
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FM Living
Mommamel09 said:
I did the same thing to my husband when our second son came along. He uttered the word mama and I started dancing and singing, "Ha ha ha ha!! I win!!"
01.28.10 - 10:33 AM / 1Briana said:
Oh man, that is super cute. My first word was cookie (burn, mom and dad).
01.28.10 - 10:34 AM / 2eleanorstrousers said:
My sister's baby-to-be will forever be known as Butterbean to me. Which she will find charming at her high school graduation, I'm sure.
01.28.10 - 10:39 AM / 3Joceyfae said:
Girl, You KNOW it's true!
01.28.10 - 10:41 AM / 4Kristin at Make... said:
So cute. I love the nicknames too. My son (Will) is known in our family as Booters, due to his excessive kicking in the womb. Our baby (Emma) is either Emmakins, or some variation of sweetpea, sweet potato, etc. I do worry that she'll have no idea what her name actually is.
Also...my son's first word was car, and then he learned approximately 100 other words before he FINALLY said "mama." And then about 6 months later he started calling me by my first name. So yes, I've heard mama or mom for about 6 months of his 3 years on earth. Not fair.
01.28.10 - 10:44 AM / 5tracy said:
Just be careful about saying 'that's you!' while pointing to her in photos. It took some doing to convince Ellis her name wasn't 'you'.
:)
01.28.10 - 10:45 AM / 6Pinkporches said:
My son's nickname is Smackle. Seven years ago Jimmy Kimmel had a 4-year old rapper named Little Max-o on his show. Somehow in the sleepless haze of his newborn wailing, Matthew became known as Max-0 then Matt-o, Smack-o and finally Smackle. We're in therapy.
01.28.10 - 10:47 AM / 7hammy said:
Thanks. Now my ovaries are all "BABY! BABY! BABY!"
She's too cute. Mine is getting to the toddler stage and I miss the baby part so much already!
01.28.10 - 10:49 AM / 8malisams said:
My favorite part of every Marlo video is when she inevitably tries to put the camera into her mouth. Too cute.
01.28.10 - 10:55 AM / 9Jacquie said:
Oh yeah, you totally win!
Just be careful, because "da da" could easily be confused with "donut", and the ring thing she is in sort of LOOKS like a donut, and "mmma mmmma" might technically be accepted as an exclamation one might make when trying to consume a giant pink dotty donut....
01.28.10 - 11:02 AM / 10emmajames said:
I'm surprised nobody has called her Marshmellow yet. She's just that cute and edible. At some point, though, she'll reject all her nicknames and want to be called something like Sam just to piss off her parents, so I'd recommend getting as many nicknames in as possible while she's still agreeable...
01.28.10 - 11:05 AM / 11EL said:
You sure her name isn't Coco? Cuz at the very end of the video, as she's trying to eat the camera, I distinctly hear you say "Coco, stop."
01.28.10 - 11:27 AM / 12The Dalai Mama said:
Our son--Noah--often was called No or No No. Talk about confusing for a kid. Our daughter--whose name is Zoë but her nickname quickly went from Zo Zo to Bobo and now when you call her anything--sweetie, messy, etc she shouts 'No, BOBO." She'll totally regret this someday. I am thinking when her first date shows up and we yell "Bobo...your dates here."
The perks of parenthood.
01.28.10 - 11:28 AM / 133xx1xy said:
My fav part is the "Coco stop" under your breathe, and the sound of I think Coco's tail wagging and smacking the ground or you, or something, hilarious!
01.28.10 - 11:30 AM / 14CataclysmicStar said:
I don't get "Mama" - our son, who is about a month younger than Marlo (and as a note, I have nothing against arranged marriages), is only interested in "Dada" and "Nana". This mama person? No, she only gets up with him at 3 AM and feeds him and compliments him on the texture and stench of his bowel movements. I just give him applesauce and make sure that his connected rings are within easy reach. Nope, that's not much.
And as for nicknames - both of our kids will probably never know their names. The youngest has gone from "Alexavier" to "Squishy Fishy", "Baby Cakes", "Sweet Cheeks" and "Angry Face". The oldest, Gabriel, is a myriad of different names involving the words "Boo" and "Bug" (and sometimes "Pissy"). Between the two, I think we could make some fascinating nicknames.
Oh, and we have that same jumper. Gabe saw Marlo in it and automatically walked over to the computer, pointed, and said, "Look! Brother!"
01.28.10 - 11:31 AM / 15AngieBeth said:
I won, too. One out of three ain't bad.
01.28.10 - 11:37 AM / 16gonzojrn said:
Curious readers want to know the other 3 names on the list!
:popcorn:
01.28.10 - 11:39 AM / 17Bollocks said:
dude...careful. she's setting you up!
01.28.10 - 11:44 AM / 18luv and kiwi said:
i keep playing this video for people at work. i'm sorry but she's just too cute. sigh...my stinkin clock is TICKIN'!!!
01.28.10 - 11:47 AM / 19Calichef said:
My son was a VERY early talker and could say hi, dada and babba at four months. I was pretty ticked that dada came about six months before mama considering that I had spent about a zillion times the amount of time and energy on the little twirp (and I say that in the most loving manner possible) than his father ever did.
As far as knicknames go, his first was "honey-bunny." I don't know why Kendall seemed like too much name for a six and a half pound baby but Honeybunny didn't. Perhaps I'd lost my mind? The next nickname was given by his paternal uncle and was "Yoda" because he kind of looked like Yoda. That one stuck and people called him Yoda for years. Some still do, and he's almost 25.
01.28.10 - 11:48 AM / 20teksupddg said:
i love the barely controlledgrowl of glee :)
01.28.10 - 11:57 AM / 21abbiescout said:
I loved the Coco stop it at the end! Too funny!
01.28.10 - 11:58 AM / 22The Christine said:
Funny, we've got nickname wars here as well. Unfortunately the nickname that won out for our baby was Poopsie. We've really got to stop calling her that by the time she turns 1. I can just see her and her sister greeting each other at family functions in 20 years: "Hey Poopsie, how's it going?" "STOP IT! My name is VIOLET!"
01.28.10 - 12:03 PM / 23mommica said:
My daughter earned the name "Peanut Berry" by being such a sweet little peanut, and also because I ate peanut butter and jelly nearly every day while she was in-utero. It's ironic, because I'm now pretty sure she has a peanut allergy. Sigh.
01.28.10 - 12:04 PM / 24Starr said:
You certainly do win!
My four-year-old is so cute when we try to call him nick names. Sometimes we try to call him K.P. (for Kenneth Paul) or we say, "Whatcha doing, Buster Brown?" And he replies, "I'm not a Buster Brown, I'm Kenny!"
01.28.10 - 12:05 PM / 25Circe74 said:
My first word was "squirrel." I'm not sure what that says about me.
01.28.10 - 12:19 PM / 26GlassofWin said:
Aw, so cute! My first word was "Joe" - the nickname of my brother, Mario. :)
01.28.10 - 12:19 PM / 27squirrelmonk said:
We have a Marlowe. I'm entertaining the idea of Lola, or Mari, or Mali. Marlowe-posa. Right now we call her Smilodon because her brother loves dinosaurs/prehistoric beasts and she is a very happy baby.
She just got tooth #3 and will be six months old on Saturday... maybe saying "Mama" will be next!
01.28.10 - 12:21 PM / 28LifesBeenGood said:
My daughter's nickname can vary from day to day but most commonly it's "Shorty."
I've called her that since she was wee little and she's fond of the nickname. She even had it airbrushed on her softball batting helmet. It started because she was well... short. She's taller than me now (at 13) and never fails to remind me.
My father and my brother call me "Liz" or "Lizbeth" shortened forms of my middle name, Elizabeth. Since my name is Jennifer and I don't think I would know to respond if anyone else called me that. I think I associate with their voices.
01.28.10 - 12:25 PM / 29Hagan Squared said:
She is so dang cute I wish I could inhale her!
01.28.10 - 12:30 PM / 30