nicknames

just wanted to update on the riding skills of our little mister...J.R.

(there is a funny story behind that nickname that I will get to, but first...)

for all those concerned about this guy riding around on his sister's pink barbie bike

there is no longer a need for concern.  

it only took a few days of riding without training wheels before he did a little hop, hop, hop and took off on his own moto bike.

the picture above is exactly what he looks like when he is revving it up and getting started...

don't let that picture fool you, though, once he is on he rides like he has been riding for years.

he scares me a little

so here is the story behind the nickname, J. R.

this is a picture of my sweet sweet grandma Adeline and J.R.

Julian's first christmas she sent us a christmas card addressed to Andy, myself, Ella and Ruben

...uh, who?

well, maybe my grandma was just writing out a bunch of cards and had a little misprint or something,

i thought.  

i showed Andy, we laughed.

a couple things about my grandma...she is completely with it, no dementia going on...at all

secondly, i see my grandparents pretty much every week.

Julian was born in june and by the time christmas rolled around, she had seen Julian A LOT!!

 so the next time i saw my grandma was at christmas dinner.

we hugged, we kissed, and with Julian in my arms, 

i casually tried to ask who she had addressed my card to.

she was a little puzzled but answered, well to Andy, you, Ella and Ruben, she said as she pointed to my little chunk-a-monk Julian.

i don't think i had laughed that hard in a really long time.  

i was actually really surprised that she really thought my little mister was named Ruben all that time.  

our whole family had a good laugh that day.

(gramps and JR doing their deal...eating cookies)

after that my grandpa called him J.R. for Julian Ruben and it just stuck.

my grandma to this day laughs so hard every time we talk about that story and to this day i don't think my grandpa has ever called Julian anything other than J.R.

i love it.

i love that julian got that nickname from my grandparents...it's a part of who he is today.

i thought about that nickname as i was loading these pictures because i had labeled this group of pictures J.R. on his bike...

well in this group of pictures there are of course some of my sweet girl

 and when i got to this picture

 i couldn't help but think about one of her nicknames...PELF

 Ella is quirky and is constantly doing things that are just a little bizarre.

she has such a great sense of humor and is always making me and everyone around her laugh.

she often gets herself into trouble, though, because of her impulsive behavior.

watching pippi a while back i constantly found myself thinking how similar ella was to her.  

i started calling her pippi whenever she was doing something kind of crazy like pippi.  

well around that same time the kids watched elf and ella pointed out that she was kind of like elf...so she nicknamed herself pippi and elf... PELF.
ha, see what i mean.

i love that she is different.

i see her with her friends at school and she is definitely not trying to copy other kids to fit in.  

she loves wolves, not hello kitty

and she isn't afraid to say so

i hope she continues to be just who she is as she gets older.

i just need to figure out how to help her think about her decisions and not just act on a whim.

 motoman is another nickname of julians.

he LOVES motos!!

i'm afraid this little scratch is just the beginning for this motoman.