The Name Game

I’m slowly becoming slightly, yet seriously concerned that our little Jdog does not know what his real name is. And it’s not because we alternate between his nickname and his real name (the reason why the husband is concerned about the same issue). It’s because most of the day we masquerade around as Peter Pan, Wendy and Baby Michael. Atrain (aka Peter) insists that we call Jdog by his pretend name all day long, but I try to sneak in a lot of “Jdogs” too. But every time Jdog and I slip out of character, I’m soon chided by Peter Pan, who points his plastic sword at me and tells me to walk the plank (so that he can save me…again).

So, poor, sweet Jdog is only called his real name for about 50% of the day; the other half of the day he is baby Michael (26%), “Little”—another name Atrain has attached to him—for 8%, Chub-a-love (something that slips out of my mouth when I change his diaper) for about 6%, and of course, Jdog for the remaining 10%. I hope our name games aren’t detrimental to his development. He sure doesn’t seem to mind. Call a Jdog by any other name and he is still just as sweet.