I thought I would explain Emily's nickname, since it seems like she gets called that more than she does by her birth name. When Emily was in the NICU, she was called lots of things. Miss Em is what Nurse Molly called her during the week, Emmers by Nurse Merri on the weekends. Nurse Chris settled on Em, and to most others she was Peanut. Aaron and I went through a string of different nuts because in the world of babies, she just wasn't big enough to be a Peanut. So on a daily basis it would change from pine nut to cashew to almond... My favorite was always hazel nut, which I think I could love the name Hazel if Hazel Hughston didn't sound so much like a comic strip character. However, Aaron always preferred beer nut (I'm glad that one didn't stick). The one that did by the time we left the NICU was Pistachio, and that's what she was for a long time. Eventually, Pistachio was shortened to Stach... and from there it has somehow evolved into Squishy or Squishmo. I hadn't given it much thought until a friend recently asked what nickname she had earned... Squishy probably isn't going to think Squishy is such a cool name in her teenage years, but who knows what name she'll have by then.
