Nicknames

My cousin asked me to enlighten the world as to how we came up with so many nicknames in the Dietz family.  It all started with...

Caitlin (far left--and the oldest and tallest Dietz grandchild).  Caitlin was 2 1/2 years old when she came into our family and talking quite well.  Andy & I had to come up with our own "grandparent names" and Caitlin began calling us by those names--Gran & Pops.  Alexis (2nd from left) came within a year of that and picked up on the same names Caitlin called us.  Still Pops & Gran.  That was Family #1 of grandkids.

Here you see Pops & Gran 

(Andy & Becky)  

Then Isaac came along (3rd from left) about 9 months later.  Family #2 of Grandkids.  And he changed everything.  Jay & Amy moved in with us when Isaac was about 4 months old and lived with us about 9 months.  So we had plenty of opportunity to teach him our names.  This grandmother works pretty hard to get the grandbabies to start talking.  We tried to teach Isaac to say "Pops" and it came out "Barf" for about 2 weeks.   The adults of the household loved it!  But alas...Isaac changed it to Buff.  We have no idea why.  But it stuck.  I began trying to teach him how to say "Gran" by saying the "G" sound over and over.  (G-G-G-Gran.  It actually sounded kind of like Guh-Guh-Guh Gran.)  And Isaac began calling me Guh.  But somewhere/sometime, it changed to Gee.  And that stuck.  Each of his siblings called us the same names--Buff & Gee.

About 10 months after Isaac was born, Ryan came along--Family  #3 of Grandkids.  We began teaching him to say Pops & Gran...by the same methods.  He stuck with Pops, but my teaching of  Guh-Guh-Guh-Gran ended up with him calling me Guh.  So he and his sister call us Pops & Guh to this day.  Addie playfully began calling Pops "Popsy" a lot.  We'll see where this leads.

This past year, Dax was born.  I asked Zach & Shanna what they wanted Dax to call us and Shanna chose Pops & Gee.  I've been teaching Dax to say Guh-Guh-Guh-Gee---but we'll see what he comes up with!

So...for now...we are Pops/Buff/Popsy....and Gran/Gee/Guh.

This is Uncle Matt & Aunt Lisa.  Amy's kids had another Uncle Matt on the other side of the family and it caused quite a bit of confusion for her kids.  So at one point, they asked Isaac what he wanted to re-name Uncle Matt so it would be easier.  Uncle Matt became Uncle Joy.  (We have no idea where he came up with it--but we thought it was quite funny!)  Aunt Lisa is Aunt Lisa (there are only 3 adults with their original names.)

This is Uncle Jay & Aunt Mamy (Amy).  Uncle Jay is the 2nd adult with the same name--mainly because Isaac (tallest child) is the one doing the renaming of adults.   Amy was named Aunt Mamy by Caitlin.  Babies all call Amy "Mamy."  It's just too hard to say Amy.  After she was named Aunt Mamy, she refused to let any child rename her Aunt Amy.  

This is Um-D (David) and Aunt La-La (Lindsey)  Actually, the kids could say Uncle David.  But because Zach had a different name, Isaac labeled Uncle David with a similar sounding name.  Lindsey is like me--she works hard to get the kids to say her name by saying La-la-la-Lindsey.  The "La" sound is very easy for babies to say.  Isaac was immediately able to say La-La.  And it stuck.  In fact, at Christmas, she was working with Dax to say La-La and he did it!

Zach was still in high school when Jay, Amy & Isaac lived with us.  We were teaching Isaac to say Uncle Zach, but it was just too hard for him to say.  One day, he just began saying Um-Zee which eventually became Mumzee and it stuck.  Then when Ryan came along, Zach was still home.  Ryan would run into his room in the mornings and throw open the door and Zach would rouse and look at him and say, "Hey."  This was a game Ryan would do over and over.  And Zach would always oblige with a long drawn-out "He-ey."  So Ryan began calling Zach "Hey."  And it stuck.  The kids were all older when Zach & Shanna got married, so Aunt Shanna is Aunt Shanna and sometimes affectionately referred to as Aunt Shanny.

And there you have it!  How we came up with our unusual names.  (At least, how I remember it!)  I always say it's a good thing I have 3 names (potentially 4).  I will always know which family is calling me when the grandkids address me as Gran, Gee or Guh!