dibba

Annabell has had an everchanging nickname. When I first brought her home from the hospital I called her Poopsie. I even had a little song. "Poopsie-do, Poopsie-do. Does whatever a Poopsie doos!" I know it looks silly written- and really it doesnt sound any less sung. (I actually would sing it to the same tune as 'Spiderman, Spiderman- does whatever a spider can...') Anyhow that was it. But when she was about a month old, Matt expressed his disapproval of the pet name I had chosen. I remember him saying, "You fought so hard for the name 'Annabell' (Its true- there was no talking me out of it) and it is such a pretty name. But now all you do is call her POOPSIE? Its so ridiculous." Maybe so- but as an infant she just was my poopsie. But within the first year her nick-name morphed from 'Poopsie-do into 'doop'. Changing again to doopa and finally to what it is now. Dibba. I do remembr how dibba came about tho. When I would go get her in the morning when she woke up, she would say, "Mama! Hi, dibba-dubba dibba." It was her cute little baby-babbling. The thing is, once she learned how to actually talk, it was too late Dibba or dib, had stuck.

Now she is 4 1/2 and 'diddy' (thats what she has always called Matt) has again brought up the subject of her nick-name. He casually in passing remarked how I hardly ever call her Annabell. Its true- I tend to use dibba a lot. It hs even got to the point where Matt says it some times, tho he prefers 'Sweet-heart' or 'sweetness'. I've heard my dad call her dibba as well. All fine with me. But the other day soeone outside the family called her dibba. It sort of took me aback. It wasnt a stranger or anything, but did I not give her a beautiful name for the purpose of people knowing and using IT? I also recalled the nickname my brothers use to call me because they were babies and couldnt say sister or Jennifer. They always called me Tudda. I never cared when family members us the name but I couldnt stand anyone else to say it.

So that is my current dilemma. What do you call your kids? What was your nickname as a child?

Before I go searching for the dinner involving the least effort, I want to share a sweet little moment I had with my Dib tonite.

I was putting her to bed. We were dancing in the dark in her bedroom, me holding her and her head on my shoulder. I was thinking about how little she ued to be and how big she is getting and how much I'm gonna miss these moments putting her to bed at nite when she's older. I quietly said "Oh dib, What did I do before I had my Dibba?" After a second she whispered back "Nothing". It was so simple yet so profound at the same time. I know I did lots of things in my 30 years before her. But at that moment I couldn't think of one. There was nothing else I'd rather been doing than singing & dancing to 'You are my Sunshine" with Annabell in the dark.