we’ll, we’ve been bouncing around a little bit with nicknames for sparklet — not that we’re giving up on sparklet for external marketing purposes, but it’s a little harsh/abrupt/awkward to use in daily life.

for now, we’ve settled on some variation on the word “goober” — including goob, goober bear, and goober nut. (it’s important to be nimble.)

now, on the surface, i can see how this might sound odd, but in our defense the the urban dictionary — one of the least polite chroniclers of slang on our fine planet — defines goober as:

a goober is just a kindhearted, rather oblivious goofball. it’s term of endearment really. it comes from the ancient scottish verb “to goub”, which has to do with doing a dance and smiling sheepishly while doing so, exposing the goubs in one’s teeth.

so, it’s actually kind of appropriate.

i wish i knew exactly how “goober” worked its way into our collective vernacular — i have a feeling it was because we were calling her doofus during her “running into walls” phase and decided we should shoot for something a bit more charitable.

either way, the nickname was cemented about six months ago when we first watch disney’s meet the robinsons — one of the two lead characters’ nicknames is goob, and he has that sort of sheepish, lovable quality that we see in sparklet at this age.

of course, he also turns out to be the arch-villain of the story, but that’s for another time.