"Chaparrita"

For today’s breakfast I was joined by my family; my parents, my sister and her husband, two of my cousins with their children, my aunt and uncle, and of course my grandma. Naturally, I was going to be observing other people, but because this restaurant doesn't really have that many other people to watch, besides and elderly couple that always comes here, I am going to have to watch my family. This is going to be interesting. This is because my family is loud, seriously, if they’re talking to each other it basically sounds like they are yelling at each other. They have no inside voice, I don't even think they know what a whisper is!
      Anyways, we are sitting there and since we know the elderly couple that always goes to that restaurant we say hi to them. I see the waitress coming and I can already hear my aunts loud laughing. When she laughs, I see the waitress reaction and she seems surprised, especially since my aunt is a small woman, but she smiles and laughs to herself. They continue talking and I’m listening to them and watching them, pretty much like I always am, because I unlike them I am not loud or that social. I’m the “quiet” one. They all order their food, but one thing I notice is that every time we go anywhere as a family, there is an impeccable need to know what everyone else is wanting to order. So I just hear everyone asking, “What are you ordering?” or “I was going to get that too, maybe I’ll just get something else instead”.
Another family of three walks in, they sit close by, but every now and then turn to look at our table because of our loudness, well my family’s loudness. I feel bad for them, because I have a feeling their breakfast is not going to be as enjoyable as they thought, but they don't seem to tell us anything.
Another thing I noticed, not just among my family but other Hispanic families is the use of nicknames. I honestly don't even know how they come up with the nicknames, but they usually have to do with something about you when you were a kid. Like mine, for example, was given to me by my grandma and is “Chaparrita” meaning short, because when I was small I was short.  My dad calls me “Gorda” meaning fatty because when I was small I was considered a husky baby, but he still teases me about being big. He calls my mom “Flaquita” meaning skinny, which is true because my mom is really skinny, every now and then he calls her “Araña” meaning spider, but I have no idea why, he just says it as a word of endearment; he doesn't even know why, he just started calling her that and it stuck. One thing is that I’ve never really heard an American family call their children by any nicknames, besides maybe, sweety or darling; but it just makes me wonder how many other Hispanic families have nicknames for everyone, even the ones that don't make sense like spider. It sounds so weird saying it in English, I can only imagine my dad calling my mom, “Spider! Can I have some water?” that sounds so weird. Come to think of it, there are so many phrases in Spanish that sound weird in English, like they just don't make sense. It’s also the same way around, watching movies in English and then watching them in Spanish with my cousins who don't understand English is one of funniest experiences every, especially animated movies or shows like Spongebob and Shrek.