Lukie Long Shanks

I took Lukas to his first drop off visit to daycare today. It is amazing how many things we need to get prepared for a two hour unattended visit (unattended by parents - the daycare workers are there). We packed a bag with extra clothes, sippy cup, soft cover photo book, lion teething toy, bunting outfit, diapers, solid food and spoon, and enough paperwork to keep the whole Pentagon busy deciphering their meaning for months. (When they are not planning their next brilliant scheme along with W, of course, to solve the mess overseas!)

One of the pieces of paperwork asked, among other more important things, for Lukas' nickname. Lukas has several nicknames. There's the obvious one 'Luke', and the happier version 'Lukie'. But we also have several other names by which we call our son. There's 'Budlet' to which I have referred to him in several previous posts. This was a version of 'Little Buddy' (remember Gilligan?).

Also, when Luke was born he had a long patch of hair on top that we would wind up into a big curl on top of his head. It made him look like a 'Who' from the Grinch stories, so we started calling him 'Lukie Lou Who.' There is also 'The 'Cutest Boy Ever' as in "who's the cutest boy ever?" I am sure he is not the only boy with this one though, since we all think our child is the cutest on the planet even when there can be only one, kind of like in 'Highlander'.

There are also some occasional nicknames, like his Mafia name 'Lukie the Prune Faced Boy' which he gets after most lunch meals. Lukas is also in the 90% percentile for length for his age (he most certainly didn't get this from me since I am 'Just Your Average Guy of Average Height' and if I was taller 'I Coulda' Been Special' on the hardwood). So we often call him by his Viking nickname 'Luke the Long'. Of course this also doubles as his pirate name (aaarrrrgggh!), or we modify it to make it his medieval name 'Lukie Long Shanks' since I am positive there was a 'Long Shanks' in a movie with knights I saw once. By the way, yours truly had a nickname in high school. It was 'Jambo' (they drew First Blood) and with the new Rambo film out soon, I'm feeling a comeback. Uh, maybe not.

Anyway, the point is that nicknames are loads of fun. And with as many times (hundreds) Lukas hears his given name through the course of a day, it is nice to mix things up a bit. Hopefully this will spark his creativity as well as he grows older.

So, I am back from daycare now and Lukas 'The Charmer' had everyone raving about how great and happy he was. All the daycare workers commented with apparent surprise (or really good acting) at how social and fun he was. 'The Cutest Boy Ever' strikes again.

When I dropped him off he was so curious about everything going on he barely noticed I was trying to get his attention to say goodbye. Then when I picked him up, he fussed because he wanted to play some more. So much for missing his old man. And, he didn't use 95% of the things we packed for him, but it was great for us to know that we were prepared for all eventualities.

'Lukie Lou Who' will be just fine at daycare. 'Jambo', however, will need some adjustment time!