My Son, John

Dear Jack,

You and I have been playing this game for the last few months where I write "Jack" or "Mama" or "Sydney" or "Daddy" and you say which family member's name it is.

At the same time, your exposure to shows like Word World and Super Why as well as the curriculum at your day care have taught you about half of your letters.  Your favorite letter is O.  It was the first one you learned and you will pick it out from a group of letter magnets and find it in other words and excitedly exclaim, "O!  O!"

About a month ago, I wrote "Jack" for you.  You said something about an O.  I told you there was no O in "Jack" but there was an O in "John" and I wrote "John" for you.  You immediately pointed to the name John and said, "That's me!"

In the last month, I have played several name games with you and really paid attention to which letters you like.  Your favorites now are O, N, and J.  In fact, today, while I was actually checking to see which letters you knew so I could take a picture, you watched me pull the ones you knew to the left side of the fridge and keep the others on the right side.  You took your O, N, and J and put them in a special place on the table.  I had to go get them to take the picture I wanted.

 I have also asked you if you want to be called "Jack" or "John" and almost without fail, you have answered "John" every time.

It sounds so ridiculous that a two year old would chose what to have people call him based on the letters in his name.  So I took a video of the latest of these conversations, just to prove it to myself and a future you that it was how it happened.

In previous conversations like this, you have pointed to "Jack" and said, "Yous like that, Mommy" and then pointed to "John" and said, "I's like this, Mommy."

The bottom line, though, is this.  I'm not ready to stop calling you Jack.  I'm not ready to call everyone we know and tell them to stop calling you Jack.  I am, however, ready to talk to your daycare teacher and see if she will help you go by John at school.  If you never answer when she calls you and get tired of the letter O in a week or two and move on to the letter C, or A, or K, then it's a small test area to work with.

But if the school experiment is a complete success and it makes you happy to be called "John," then I will let your other friends and family know and then let them decide.  My family called me "Becky" when I was a baby and to most of them, I still am "Becky" even though I am "Rebecca" to the rest of the world.

I think even if you do decide to be "John" at school, those of us who have known you since birth can stick with "Jack" if we want to.

Either way, you'll be my son, John, my Jack-a-baby, my Baby Jack, my John Patrick, my sweet boy.

Love,
Mom