On the Origin of Nuggle

Wow, I haven't posted for a while. Mostly because our life has been downright boring lately. Which is fine by me. It's nice that February is starting out relatively calm because pretty soon it is going to get rip-roaring crazy. You'll see. I guess the only thing to update everyone on is that I was released from my calling. I have been the first counselor in the Relief Society for almost exactly a year and a half (which is a long time for our ward) and I got to serve under two fantastic presidents. I'm pretty sure my freedom won't last long. The Young Women's president tracked me down to let me know she was "excited" that I was released. Which is right up my alley. I'd still be going to Young Women's if I had any say-so in the matter.

Other than that, Zoe isn't feeling so great and has a pretty yucky cough. I'm just hoping it blows over. If that wasn't enough, I finally got to the exciting part of Jane Eyre, where things actually start to happen so for the last two and a half days I've really been no good to anyone. Just ask James.

To make up to our families, specifically the grandmas, for excluding Zoe's little nuggle face from so many (6 straight) recent posts, I present the following:

On the Origin of Nuggle

Some of you may have noticed (and some of you have commented) about the usage of the term "Nuggle." Today I intend to address the origins and proper usage of the term.

James and I do not belong to the school of thought that says you should wait to choose your child's name until after they are born (for me this is one of those no-brainers right up there with finding out the sex at 20 weeks, no offense to anyone not of my opinion, but really you are crazy and wrong). When they come out they are swollen, red, and covered in goo. And I am in a drug/labor of love-induced stupor. No condition for making far-reaching decisions in my child's life. So before we even got married we knew what names we wanted to use for our children.

One thing we couldn't predict was the role of nicknames. During the pregnancy we went through various ones, including Zowen before we knew the gender (Zoe + Owen). Then Zoe came into the world and every nickname we ever called her went out the window. After months of toying around with new nicknames, we realized that the only word/name that fit her was "Nuggle." It started out as us just saying snuggle, then we dropped the "s" and it became a noun. Other incarnations we use include: Nuggles, Nuggle Bear, Nuggles T. Bear, Nuggle-Faced Bear, Nugglesome Bear, and Nuggly B (used exclusively by James). Sometimes she is a Nuggle, sometimes she is The Nuggle (a la The Cheat) but she is always nuggly.

How long will she be a Nuggle? Who knows. We will probably embarrass her in front of her friends in high school.

So maybe it's a half-made up word that means nothing to anybody else. To us it sums up everything about this wonderful little girl we get to hang out with every day.

Now aren't you all glad we didn't name her when we saw her?

All the snow pictures/footage is from one miraculous outing where Zoe decided it was about time to actually touch the snow she talks about endlessly. She went all along one side of the walkway sticking her right foot into the snow. I guess this is what you would call a step in the right direction? The video gets a little bit of it. Something must have gone terribly wrong the last time she stuck her foot in because she a had a total meltdown.