Terms of Endearment

Anybody who's spent any length of time with my family knows that VanDusens show love through nicknames. We've got Dango and Mango, which is my brother Dan and his wife Amanda; Sammy Dusen, whose full name is Sam VAN Dusen, but he doesn't know that yet; Nadbositus, not sure how to spell that one, but it's a variation of Nadia; Auntie Carparts is for my sister Carrie, and is derived from Carebears; Grammy Pammy is my mom, dubbed so by Nadia; she's also known as Momela, a combination of Mom and Pamela; and then there's the Great Zacharini, a self-given nickname for Zach when he was little and into doing magic tricks. When Zach first entered our family, he was horrified to discover that my mom, sister, and I lovingly refer to each other as "Whore"--the pronunciation for that one came from Fez on That 70's Show.

It is no wonder, then, that Isaac has already received a plethora of nicknames. The first, Spike, was given to him years ago when Zach and I were first married and was how we often referred to him when he was in utero. I decided it's time to shed some light on how our sweet little boy began to be referred to by such a name.

In our first year of marriage, I was upset about something, I can't remember what now, and to cheer me up, Zach made up a story about our lives in the future. In this story, we had three children. Their names were Spike, Thor, and Sheniqua. One of the only things I remember about the story is that Sheniqua was just a baby and it was Saturday morning. She woke me up by coming into the room with her daddy and poking me in the eye. Ever since Zach told that story, we have referred to our future children, regardless of gender, by these names. Hence, Isaac, before we even knew he was a boy, was and forevermore shall be Spike. Hopefully our next child will be cool with being called Thor--that's going to be one tough little girl.

Isaac has received lots of other nicknames since he was born. Here are a few, along with an explanation, if there is one!

• Mister ('cause he's a boy)
• Buster Brown
• Doodle Junior or Toodle Doodle (Zach was Doodle when he was a boy, and sometimes you can still hear his dad call him that once in awhile)
• Boo, Peachy Pie, Tooty (all nicknames that my dad called me)

• Angel Baby (when he's giving mommy lots of time to sleep-Daddy often helps create Angel Baby, See Picture)
• Izzy (given by Auntie Carrie)
• Mr. Poopy Pants or Mr. Stinky Butt (for obvious reasons)

• Burrito Baby, Taco Baby, or Little Mummy (see picture--he likes to be swaddled tight)

• Birdy (if you've heard him cry, this one is self-evident)