Blogworld, Meet Valerie

You all know that I have a big brother. What you might not know is that my brother has a wide repertoire of skills. I use him for many of these skills.

For example, my brother enjoys photography as a hobby. And he's good. Darn good. So, I use him as my personal professional photographer.

My brother also has superior computer skills. He is a computer programmer by trade and on more than on occasion I have taken advantage of his mad computer skillz. From designing my blog (which, um, needs an update - hello, Evan, are you there?), to getting rid of a virus, to finding lost files. He's come to my rescue numerous times.

But what most people likely don't know about my brother is that somewhere in there, tucked away amongst his other valuable skills, is another, highly sought after skill.

Nicknames.

Indeed, my big brother has a penchant for nicknames. He can develop nicknames for any person or animal. Most of the people (and animals) in our family have a host of nicknames that were penned by my brother.

And the best part, they make no sense. Almost all of the nicknames are so far from the person's real name, that no one would ever be able to determine where in the world they came from.

My daughter is no exception.

A few days after her birth, he informed me that he had decided on the name that he would call her.

Val or better yet - Valerie.

Yes, Valerie.

What? You don't get it?

Well, neither did I.

Until he explained.

eVALyn.

Now for the first five weeks of her life, my sweet girl has been affectionately referred to as Valerie by her aunt and uncle.

And guess what?

On more than one occasion I have caught myself singing or chatting away in my sweetest baby talk voice to my little girl and saying, "What's wrong Valerie? Do you have a story for us, Val?"

Oh dear.

I decided I should leave it up to her to decide what she thinks of this newly acquired nickname.

And this is what she said....


So, blogworld, meet Valerie.