Thursday, November 29, 2007

Mister Man


When Middle was born he wasn't Middle he was the second. Because I vowed not to forget everything about the second and to ensure that he had his own identity, I belabored terms of endearment. Oldest was known as Smooch or Peanut. Middle was almost 2 full pounds bigger than his sister so Peanut was out. I did forget a lot about the early days of Middle's life, but this I remember vividly. The day we found his term of endearment.

When we was not more than a few weeks old, during the early days when we were still trying to figure him out, I was changing his pants on the floor. We had tried all the usual endearing nick names for a baby boy like Buddy, Little Man, Slugger, etc. But that day I looked right at him and said "Mister Man." His squirming and fussing ceased. And ever the slight smile broke across his little face. SCORE! We found it! Everyone wanted to call him that, his response was so clearly delightful.

It was not the panacea for all of his fussing, but boy did he like it. Of course, Queen Mommy's version of Mhister Man was the preferred version. So it goes with mothers of new babies. We are everything to them.

Mhister Man
Mhister Man
Mhister Man

And then when Middle was not quite two, Cousin H started a new version. He started calling him Mitter Man. And that was even more endearing that Mhister Man. Both because of the joy that Mhister Man found in Cousin H's new term and the pride that Cousin H had for his new found name for Middle.

Mitter Man is hardly used anymore and when it is we all smile to ourselves remembering the day when Mhister Man was born.

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