Dear Husband

I realized while writing out a blogging how-to to my beloved cousin (who really ought to start a blog as she has a lot of experience to share) that I have committed one of my own pet peeves. Yes--I have continually referred to my husband as "dh" on my blog.

This is a habit, really. For speed's sake, I use all of the common abbreviations on forums: "dd," "ds," and yes, even "dh." We're all on the same page in forum-land, and while it stumps newbies for a while, eventually even they begin to understand some of the more convoluted abbreviations, such as "dsil" (dear sister in-law for the uninitiated).

But here on my blog I have tried to be more authentic. I wanted to create a relationship here that allows readers to begin to feel a sense of who my children are, and how we interact with one another. When I moved this blog from its original site on homeschoolblogger.com, I spent a good deal of time casting around for names that would convey to folks who have never met my family just who these wonderful little individuals are. Being a literary type, I decided to go for a theme of characters whose personalities were close to my children's.

Matching "dd10" with "Jo" was a no-brainer. My darling girl is adventurous and passionate, slightly tomboy-ish but still a lady. She is fascinated with the written word and fancies herself quite the playwright and authoress. At the time, she was also completely smitten with Little Women and its author, Louisa May Alcott. Oddly enough, people who know my "Jo" IRL and also read this blog have commented that it suits her so well that they have almost begun to think of her as truly being named Jo.

Atticus was easy as well. The boy who could be called "ds7" is a very logical, reasonably and painfully compassionate young man. He kicks against injustice in all of its forms and patiently weathers the ignorance of those around him while trying to educate them on the very simple (in his eyes) rights and wrongs of this world. Some day, he will read To Kill A Mockingbird and its painful truths about man's nature will literally bring him to tears. Thankfully, like the character I named him after, Atticus has a trick or two up his sleeve, and is far more resilient than anyone guesses him to be.

For my five year-old son, I found myself at a loss. The only character that came to mind came not from a great work of literature, but from a comic book series I had read in high school so as to have a common bond with my brother. The series was "X-Men," and the character was Wolverine, whose real name was given as Logan. The series has, as you probably know, been made into a trilogy of movies. The Wolverine of the movies is far more shallow than the Wolverine of the comics (I can't believe I'm writing this). In the comics, Logan is conflicted about who is, looking for a place where his particular strengths and weaknesses can be appreciated and constantly battling a passion inside of himself that threatens to boil over if stirred too hard. Added to that is his super-power: the ability to heal himself, and to be almost oblivious to pain. This pretty much sums up my boy, believe it or not. My Logan has more fire and talent and desire packed into his little body than any person ought to have to suffer through. Because let's be honest: intensely creative people are a little funny in the head sometimes. They aren't like the common worker ant, content to carry the crumb back to the hole, drop it off and join the que for the return trip. No--they are always bashing their heads against the authority that told them to go and get the crumb, or trying to find a better route or, heaven forbid, giving up the search for crumbs altogether to pursue acting or some other such oddness.

Oh, and Logan does have a super-power. He doesn't feel pain. O.k., he does feel it a little ... but that's usually only when bones are broken.

As you can see, a lot of thought went into this process. And somehow, dh--I mean, my husband, got left out. Which just isn't right.

So now I'm looking for a name that suits him. I thought I'd stick with the literature theme (if you're the type that can accept a comic book reference as a continuance of a literature theme). Unfortunately, I'm even more stumped than I was in naming Logan. I've got to find a character who reflects all of these qualities:

-devoted to family
-academic
-traditional
-committed to spiritual growth
-strong sense of social justice
-world traveler
-passionate about life
and
-really cute (o.k., that's just me talking!)

Any suggestions?