Sasee Magazine

One of my children’s favorite cartoons is called “Phineas and Ferb.” It’s about these two boys who happened to be named – yeah, you guessed it – Phineas and Ferb. There’s also a bad guy who’s a lot more dorky than he is evil, and a platypus turned spy named Perry. (Yeah, I know, it’s strange, but my kids love it.) These two boys spend their summer vacation inventing all kinds of cool things. But while the boys are having their fun, making miniature golf courses and roller coasters in their backyard, the show’s bad guy – whose name is Doctor Doofensmirtz – is busy inventing a lot of not-so-harmless things. Everything he invents is designed to destroy the universe in some bizarre way, and every contraption has a name that ends in “inator.” In one episode, he designs a machine that is supposed to make everyone on earth as miserable as he is, and he names it The Gloom-inator. In another episode, he decides to shrink everyone’s brain so he’ll be the smartest person in the world. His invention is called The Brain Shrink-inator.

I can always tell when my kids have watched “Phineas and Ferb” one too many times. They start adding “inator” to the end of nearly everything they say. When one of them is getting on another one’s nerves, they say, “Stop being the Annoy-inator.” When I ask them to pick up their toys, they announce that someone should invent a Clean-up-inator. They’ve even told me that they were hungry and asked how soon I planned to morph into the Cook-inator. It usually goes something like this, “Hey, Mom-inator, I’m totally starved-inator. Can you go into the kitchen-inator and become the Cook-inator?” (And they wonder why I threaten to have the cable shut off!)

My brother-in-law, Jeff, has an amazing ability to put babies to sleep. I’ve seen him put fussy babies to sleep during church services, weddings, even concerts. This talent has come in handy on many occasions through the years, although I haven’t ever been quite desperate enough to call him at 2 am. (But I have seriously considered it a time or two.) Yes, Jeff is truly gifted. And, of course, around my house he is known as the Sleep-inator.

Nathan, my son who is all too quickly approaching his first birthday, has had many nicknames in his young life. Nathan has been shortened to Nate, Natey and even Nato. But after watching their favorite show, Nathan’s siblings began calling him the Nate-inator. It’s a bit of a tongue twister, but as everyone knows, if it ends in “inator,” it’s a terrific nickname. This, of course, led to other “inator” names for Nathan. The first one they came up with was the Poop-inator. It made the kids laugh and even I, as the primary diaper changer, had to admit the child was aptly named. When Nathan began cutting teeth, the fronts of his shirts were always soaked with his spit, so the kids began calling him the Drool-inator. And because his big brothers and sisters found the entire concept of breastfeeding utterly hilarious, poor Nathan was even for a brief time known as the Boob-inator. (I nixed that one and can only hope and pray that the nickname doesn’t resurface during his college years.)

Now that Nathan is almost one, he is at the stage my kids call “the fun stuff.” He smiles constantly and giggles when they play with him. He takes his pacifier out of his mouth and holds it out for them to share, and he belly laughs when they pretend to suck on it. He makes funny noises and laughs when the kids imitate him. Yes, Nathan’s brothers and sisters are really enjoying this stage. The other day, I heard one of the kids call him The Cute-inator.

But to me, Nathan is the Hug-inator. When I pick him up out of his crib every morning, he gives me this hug like it’s been years since he’s seen me, not just a few hours. And every time he hugs me, I think, “There’s nothing else in the whole world like a baby hug.” Nathan has just learned what the word “up” means. While he doesn’t yet say the word himself, if he hears it uttered by anyone else, he immediately grins and holds up his arms. And if I’m lucky enough to be the one to “up” him, I’m rewarded with the most precious baby squeeze you can imagine. No matter what is going on around me, for those few seconds, I just melt.

But of all the nicknames my kids could give Baby Nate, the most accurate name would be the Grow-inator. Nathan is getting big far more quickly than this mommy would like. His rapidly approaching first birthday will be a bittersweet day for me. He’s my last baby, and I think that makes it harder. He’s also a caboose baby, born seven years after his next-youngest sibling, and seven years after I thought I was done having babies. Yes, Nathan has been an unexpected blessing, but he’s definitely one of the best surprises I’ve ever received. And he’s growing up way too fast.

So unless Doctor Doofensmirtz can invent a Time Freeze-inator for me, I better enjoy those sweet little baby hugs while I can.