Nicknames: Graydon

Graydon has more nicknames than Addie, but there is actually less to explain about them. This conundrum actually makes perfect sense once you think about it. Babies require baby talk. They just do. I'm not saying it's in the parenting contract or anything, but it is virtually impossible to talk to a chubby little package of dimples and rolls and gummy grins without reverting to a mishmash of delicious babble. Anything for a smile and a laugh. And baby talk lends itself naturally to nicknames and terms of endearment, usually cooed in an unusually high voice and often with a sort of speech impediment and some horrid grammatical errors thrown in for good measure. "Ohhh, dere's Mama's wittle punkin, her tweet big fella, oh yes him is." Don't even judge, you KNOW you've done it.


I dare you to look at those huge eyes and sweet cheeks and use the King's English 24/7. Not.Gonna.Happen.















We call Graydon "Graydon" for the most part, and not really Grady or Gray or Aydon or Don or Ray, or any possible other permutation of his name. That may change as he grows but for now his full name remains his daily name. Except of course for the approximately 90% of the time that we call him by one of many nicknames, of which I will highlight only a few.

GrayGray, Gradycakes, and GrayJay (Graydon James) are my run of the mill nicknames for the little man.

We are on our way to his sip and see here. I think he was about eight weeks old at the time.














And maybe here is a good time to say that he just slays me. Seriously. This little guy is so pleasant and so funny. He makes me laugh all the time with his hearty baby belly laugh (most often prompted by his sister's presence) and his smile KILLS me. I posted a video at the bottom of his very first "laughing episode" and it is pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself. The boy likes his Tylenol.(Sidenote: I was giving him Tylenol because he is cutting THREE TEETH. Yes, he is three months old. Steroids are a heckuva drug.) His whole face breaks into a mass of dimples (three!) that are just priceless to me. I'm smitten. Pretty soon I will be doodling his name on my notebook.


Sweet disposition. Just look at those kind eyes.

























Did I mention he's teething? He chews on everything.














Addie and Tim call him "Buddy" more than anything else. Addie says "Hey Buddy!" all the time, which is so darn cute, it kills me. She got that from Tim and she enjoys the fact that they both call Graydon "Buddy", I think. Like it's "their thing".

Graydon is essentially a miniature version of his father, which leads to the nickname Tiny Tim. I'd say this is most often used by Tim's friends. People always thought Addie looked like Tim, but we never really did. She didn't look much like his baby pictures. I thought then, and still think, that Addie resembles my mother and sisters more than anyone else. Graydon, on the other hand, is a dead ringer for his Daddy. I don't like the whole "crippled and starving" Dickensien connotation of Tiny Tim, but it rolls off the tongue a lot easier than "doppelganger" so we'll go with it.

Oh, hi there, miniature Timothy.




























Chubs, Chunk, Pumpkin, PunkinChunkin are the names that highlight our lil porker's porkiness. As featured above. And below. Looking at him beside James Brogan is hilarious. James is 2 weeks younger and about half the G man's size. As Jen says, it's like that movie "Twins" with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. A couple of side by side shots show that they started out fairly evenly, but now Graydon is literally dwarfing JB. Someone noted that I must have seriously "good" milk because my kids are always chunks. I modestly submit that it is easy to have calorie rich breastmilk if you create it mainly from chocolate.

This was right after Graydon got out of the hospital. Two things: he was still taking a paci and he was SO SKINNY.





























A few weeks later. James is attempting to "catch up" in length by stretching. Graydon's look says "Dude. Don't even play."




























Aaaaaaannnnddd....this was this weekend. Hence the nicknames "Chunk" and "Chip".











And here we have the promised video. I love his laugh. And a funny note: Graydon really likes Tylenol, but so does Addie. She always takes his used baby syringe and sucks the last tiny little bit out of the tip of it. Why doesn't medicine for adults taste so yummy?