Nicknames – Golden Kali

I’m a nicknamer. I don’t know why but I’ve always given nicknames. I call my oldest son Pop. He’s 33 and I started calling him that when he was less than six months old. It stuck. There’s variations of the nick name as well like Popadoo, Popadoo-ron-ron, and Popodopolis My other son I used to call Goosey-Goose’ because he was always bumping into things as a baby and getting goose eggs on his head. This one did not stick which was probably good. My daughter is Sweetie Girl, Holly is Hollis Marie, and so on and so on.

All the nicknames are organic; they just happen. They just come out of my mouth without much thought (as do a lot of things I say!) and sometimes they stick and sometimes they don’t.

So it shouldn’t be surprising that “the girls” (Kali and Kloe) have nicknames.

Kali: Kalis Marie (precarious because of the aforementioned Hollis Marie), Kal, Kalidonia, Fat Girl (sorry Kali), Kalifornia, and Sweetie Girl (yes, same as my daughter).

Kloe: Klois Marie (there’s a theme here), Kloe Bowie, Sweets (which always followed by me saying, “mind if I call you sweets”, and Klo Klo.

The names are always organic except for one that I now have for Kloe: Sugar Lips.

Some time ago Holly was teasing me saying that I have all these nick names for the girls. So I say, “like what”. And she goes on to name a few and throws in Sugar Lips for Kloe which I had never used before. I said, “I don’t call Kloe Sugar Lips…. until now”.

“Hey Sugar Lips” is now my usual response to Kloe when she comes to greet me. Her lips and kisses are indeed very sweet so long as I don’t think about all the foraging she has been doing around the Golden K but that’s a post for another day.

So yeah, Sugar Lips. What nick names do you have for your pups?

Sugar Lips Chillin’ on the deck of the Golden K

She answers to all of them. Maybe it’s the sound of my voice. Maybe it’s my inflection. Maybe she’s brilliant! That’s got to be it. Kali is brilliant.

It’s something I’ve always done. With my kids, with my employees, and with our pets. It’s not so much that I think about it and give nicknames. They just come out of my mouth without thinking about it. When my wife reads this she’ll be thinking something like, “yeah – a lot of things come out of his mouth without thinking”.

So Kali is the latest “victim” of my nicknames. And, she seems to know they refer to her.

Kalas
Kalas Marie
Kalamazoo
Kal
Hey ‘da Kal
Kali-fornia
Sweetie Girl
Swedish Meatball (yes I know, kinda weird, huh…)

And that’s just the list so far after less than three months. But she seems to know they are all her. Like I said, brilliant, right?

Admittedly, some of the names are recycled. Kalas Marie, as odd as this may sound, is a derivative of a nick name for my wife whose name is Holly. Years ago a friend of ours referred to her has Hollace Marie and I’ve used it ever since. Hey ‘da Kal is a derivative of Hey ‘da Smoke which I used for Kali’s little bro’ Smokey for some time now. By the way, another reference for Smokey is “Tippy Too” at those times when I refer to Kali as Kalamazoo. I’m not sure where that one came from but I am probably bastardizing it from some other phrase I heard at some point in my life (Tippecanoe and Tyler Too?…), not sure. By the way, Sweetie Girl is a little precarious because this is the nickname I use at times for both my wife and my daughter.

The point is that Kali doesn’t look at me like I’m crazy when I call her these names. Sometimes my wife does. But not Kali. Kali seems to get it and she gets me too. Not that my wife doesn’t get me – she knew exactly what she was getting into 32 years ago when she said “I do” and the rest is history. But Kali after this very short amount of time also gets me.

Earlier this week my wife says, “Kali is the perfect dog for you – she’s a creature of habit”. What dog isn’t right? But Holly is right – I am a major creature of habit (can you say OCD?), and I love routine and Kali and I have one that if broken both of us get a little cranky. Fortunately, since Kali has joined our family, I have a lot of flexibility with my professional schedule and can make sure I follow our routine to our collective liking whenever possible.

So here we are Holly, Kali, and I sitting on the patio on a warm summer night. Executing perfectly our nightly pre-dinner routine. Holly drawing, me futzing with my computer, and Kali by my side waiting for the next step in the routine. Dinner. And look Kalas Marie – it’s just about six o’clock.

The routine is to feed Kalamazoo at 6:00 and, if he’s around, Tippy too.

Kalas Marie – what a “Sweetie Girl”!

Kalamazoo and Tippy Too

Golden Kali

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