What's in a (nick) name?

We are a little goofy around here. No surprise if you've read this blog for a while. Sam had a million and one nicknames, none of which sounded like Sam, he is still called "Bubula" by Paul, which happens to be a Yiddish word traditionally used by grandmothers when referring to their children. Clearly we spent too much time in South Florida. I still call him "Puppy" from time-to-time because Paul thinks I want him to be a gay hairdresser, which I obviously do. And Peter still remains "Foosa," which we snagged from the first Madagascar movie when he was just a tiny baby, ala "The Foosa are attacking!"

So maybe you've all been wondering what we call Clementine? After all it is the first question we get, "What will you call her." As if a beautiful name like Clementine, needed something to be called. I digress, and to be fair, though, there are so many options, likely she will decide later what she'd like to be called, I vote for Clementine, obviously, but for now she is "Loo-loo-lee," among all of the others listed in my flow chart below. And to think, it only took us three months to get here, who can imagine what we'll be calling her in another three.....

In other news: Last night my baby girl slept in her own crib for the first time, while I cried myself to sleep. The aching in my chest as my heart reached out of bed feeling nothing atop her waffle sheeted, linen bassinet beside my bed, then rounded the corner into the playroom and felt it's way across the mahogany colored, Brazilian, hard wood doors, into her black, spindled crib and there she was....exactly.too.far.away.

Just as Paul had suspected, though, we both survived the night.

I wanted to keep her in the basinnete in our room forever, because this means she's growing up and everything about her arrival and her presence is romance and I don't ever want it to stop: Her conception (duh), my pregnancy with her here in Brazil, her delivery (which I am still working on translating into English, to share from deep within my heart),  her smile, her sweet peaches and cream skin, her disposition.

All of me doesn't ever want her to grow up, but half of me can't wait to see how she will blossom and change each day.