the Birth of a Nickname

When we named our baby, B and I put a lot of thought into the names we chose, even though we technically named Cora after she was born.  We had two names picked and waited to see which one "fit." In the process of picking our "finalists," we generally strayed from anything that could have a long-standing nickname. My mom never in a million years thought that my name would end up "Cat" after naming me Catherine.  It just wasn't a popular nickname back in 1984, so it never crossed her mind.  But my friends ended up giving it to me in middle school, and, for better or worse, it stuck.  It's definitely my name now--it was even on my most recent business card.

However, the name Cora is very hard to give a nickname.  I guess you could do "CoCo," but that reminds me of a gorilla, so no thanks.  Corry is a different name entirely.  These are actually a few of the reasons we liked this name.

All that being said, I now have a few nicknames for our baby.  I'm pretty much the only one who uses them.  B acknowledges them, but he won't use them himself.  Her nickname?  "Little Boop Boop."  I don't blame him for not using it.  This came about because back when she was about 6 weeks old and starting to give a social smile, I realized she always did it if "booped" her nose.  Basically, I would just tap it with my index finger and say "boop boop" in that high pitch only befitting for "booping" a baby's nose.  This nickname has now evolved sometimes into "Boopsy" and--my favorite--"The Boopster."

I often sing a song I made up that goes, "Lil' Boop Boop, Lil' Boop Boop, Lil' Boop Boop Boop Boop Boop Boop," (award-winning lyrics, I know), while I hold her hands and wave them back and forth.  This can instantly calm her down and smile, and sometimes she even laughs.  However, now I'm starting to fear she doesn't actually know her real name.  So I made up another song called "We love Cora" to the tune of "Frère Jacques"/"Are You Sleeping?", in hopes she might know that her name isn't actually The Boopster.

Here's a video of me singing both of the songs to her (it also includes an example of me "booping" her nose):



p.s. That blanket beneath her in the video?  Yeah, that's the free one we got from Budget for Baby :)