#baby miller and jj playing cowboys like their pappa and tíos 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

[mariatesstruther]

okay i am thinking about maria and tommy’s baby growing up with a lil half-texan accent and picking up the miller family affinity for using the pet name “baby”

they get into that adorable “hi!” phase where children cant help but greet and wave to everyone they see, but instead of saying “hi!” or “hello!,” baby miller greets everyone with a heavily-accented little “hey baby!!!!!” because that’s the most common greeting in the miller family household. maria and tommy call each other baby/babe and joel calls ellie baby/babygirl, so baby miller is growing up constantly hearing variations of “hey babygirl,” “hi baby,” “how was your day, babe?,” “take a load off, baby, sit down,” and basically every other casual use of baby ever

its so common and expected between all the millers that toddler-aged baby miller just reasonably concludes one day that that is how people say hello and show love to each other. ellie is piggybacking them over to breakfast one day and they just starts waving to jackson residents they pass by, calling out an amazing lil accented “hi, baby!” in the most adorable genuine joy ever. ellie doesnt correct them bc she thinks its hilarious and cute; in solidarity, she starts to join in. by the time they get to the mess hall, jackson’s residents are smiling back and waving to them, some calling back “hey, baby!” too.

by the time the adult millers get wind of it, the damage has already been done. they each get to the mess hall from whatever work they’re doing and are greeting with enthusiastic “hey, baby!”s not just from baby miller, but from ellie and all the other people in their general vicinity. it’s jackson’s favorite town-wide inside joke for weeks

baby miller does eventually get the explanation that “baby” is more of a miller/family thing than an everybody thing, but they still use it pretty often growing up because it’s a comfortable affection thing for them and also now a pretty hard habit to break (thank you, ellie)