Affectionate names not typically used in the English language

Trying to add to my last post the sentence "Adults I'm not easily this tender with", but for some reason getting an error message when clicking the Edit button.

Going to bed at 4am, waking up at 8... Starting a discussion on affectionate names... It would appear tlk is going through some kind of uncanny metamorphosis (or is it just a phase).

 

To be continued... (The new sentence I couldn't add to my latest post).

 

We have caramel 'Sugar Babies'. My brother and I called them 'Choooo-gar babeece'.

 

"Twinkie" makes a nice term of endearment .

 

Hamgerbur
Tinker
People-pup (my favorite!)

 

... I really should not post when I've barely slept.

 

My grandmother always called me “buebe” when I was little, which is a Swiss-French slang specific from my area that means “small child” it is also a verb. “Je buebe” meaning literally
“I [am] childering” meaning to “give birth” in the sense of “I am creating a child”. Kind of weird but there we go.

My parents used to called me as a child “chops” as a diminutive of “cheeky-chops”. At bit of an unusual one. But there we go.

But in general, I find terms of endearment in English quit stale.

 

That is awesomely deep. I totally get it.

 

A friend of mine calls his wife "potatoburgersaurus" because it was an insult their kid hurled at her when he was four or something. Mom told the kid to go to bed, kid pouted, mom told him to quit being a baby, kid told her "You stop being a potatoburgersaurus!"

Or so I was told...

 

My childhood friend used to say "shit" whenever the phone went off when she was learning to talk because her mother (my mother's oldest friend) tripped over one of her toys on her way to answer the phone and swore in front of my friend. I never heard how they got her to stop.

 

"Bae"

 

This thread reminds me of an issue I have. I always wanted to try my hand at a romance story but things that sound endearing in other languages sound cheesy and strange in english.
Some words me and husband use translate to english as
black lizard
brown lizard
baby chicken
my forever love
firefly
Baby Finch
sweet tomatoe
Bambi (baby deer)
I know there are some more I cant think of but I know its so funny translated in English.

Then I try to picture some possible lines for my romance story and it would go something like : "My beautiful brown lizard your love is killing me slowly and with just one passing gaze I die behind the light in your eyes."
Or how about: " My baby sweet tomatoe please let me die for you as my love knows no bounds in your presence."

This stuff sounds so romantic and endearing in our native language but when we try to translate it to english we both burst out into laughter.
I have made these type of lines work for my poetry but no so much for character dialogue . I just don't know what romantic things there is to say in English that doesn't sound cheesy?