Evolution

I imagine everyone has had the experience of being christened with a nick name. Some make you feel good, others not so much.

My older brother likes to call me anything that started with "SKW"sound. He stuck mostly to Squirrel and Squid. I never really minded. Whereas, our neighbor, whose name I cannot even recall, called me "Celery." I hated it. I think it started with "carrot" for my red hair, but somehow it morphed to a different crudite vegetable. Beats me.

Before she was actually born I imagined calling Sophie, Fifi, the common french nick name for "Sofia." Once she was born, though, it felt forced.

When she was a tiny baby, I started calling her "Sophie Pie," like sweetie pie. It fit her nicely. Pretty quickly I dropped the Sophie part and just started calling her "Pie." There were other nick names: Sweet Sophie; Sweet, sweet Sophie pudding pie; Pumpkin Pie, which eventually devolved to just Punk. But none have stuck for me like Pie has.

And then along comes Ruby. She's talking up a storm at 20 months. Among her first words words, though, were all of our names. Mama, Dada, Wee-wuh and my favorite: Fifi.

I hope it sticks forever.