It's all "Monkey" business...

I read an article once about the origin of nicknames.  It seems way back in the dark ages, parents would call their children by substitute names during their youth (and especially their babyhood) to keep ghouls and goblins from stealing them.  This is how nicknames came to be.

We call our youngest son Monkey.  He's always climbing on everything, constantly clinging to us, and he has those HUGE chubby cheeks when he smiles really big.  People always look at us like we're crazy for calling our son after an animal.  I think it's adorable.  And he answers to it.  He knows that nickname as well as he knows his own name - although he chooses not to answer to either of them when he's up to no good and he's about to get into trouble.

A couple years ago, I attended a name frame workshop.  It was a complete BLAST!  Then, I made a name frame for my oldest son using the nickname I've called him from birth - Chunk.  He was the fattest baby I'd ever seen.  I used to call him my "michelin-tire baby".  You'd never know it now, he's as thin as a rail and is all angles.  I loved cataloging some of my favorite pictures in an homage to my son.

When our current Idea Book came out and I saw the adorable Babycakes paper pack, I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to do with it - make a name frame for the baby.  So I sent all my favorite pictures from my cell phone over to Walgreens and started measuring.  Thankfully, I was able to find the same frame I'd gotten for his older brother.  The finished size I picked is 9 x 12.  I wanted the most space I could  to put as many pictures of my little monkey as possible.

Don't you love it??  I absolutely LOVE how stinkin' CUTE this name frame turned out!  His favorite things are eating, getting filthy and being cuddled - typical boy!  I totally captured his spirit in this name frame and it's going to look GREAT hanging on the wall right next to his older brother's.