Stephanie has a thing for nicknames.


Much to my chagrin, I have been her primary target for the past few years. I have probably had more nicknames than we have had dates. I think it all started when she mistakenly thought for a period of time that I was a black girl and started calling me "Boo". I morphed from human to bear during a brief stint as "Boo Boo" and then became a singular body part, "Booty". As of late, it appears she has settled on the funkadelic "Bootsy". Awful.


Thankfully, she has an entire new person to come up with nicknames for! Since we don't know the sex of the baby yet, and saying "it" is so impersonal, Stephanie has taken to calling the fetus "Lil Wooly". By far her best effort ever on the nickname front. She says it in an exaggerated babytalk voice, too. If it weren't so fun to say yourself, hearing her say it would be annoying. But it's not. It's awesome.


So we have a whole Wooly Family. Lil Wooly. Mama Wooly. Callie the Calico is now Wooly Cat. Me? I'm Big Wooly. And when I get down, I do it Big Wooly Style. Na na na na na na na! I cannot believe that with all the truly awful nicknames I've had in my life, nobody ever came up with Big Wooly. I love it.


Isn't it amazing that this thing inside Stephanie, which is currently the size of a lime, is already a part of our family? We aren't a couple anymore, we are a family unit, and I hope we become more entrenched as one with every day that passes.