What in a name?

Nicknames. We all have them. I wonder about my sons and if they will actually have a nickname or use their given name once they are consciously aware of what people are calling them. Right now, we call Ian "E" for short. He calls himself "E".
"No, E do it"
"It's E's turn"
"E needs chocolate milk" (we all know who to thank on that one)

He sounds pretty Y2K with all the E related discussions. He also refers to himself in the third person, which is just amusing to all of us.

Will the child have spelling issues with his first name? He seems smart enough to figure it all out. I think he has it figured out better than me.

Connor is "Little C". The boy knows his name, he lights up whenever you say it. Not sure if that will get shortened to "C" but probably. Tom was so adamant that they have first names that have good nicknames. Then we picked two names that are probably the most difficult to even come up with a shortened version. But we did it! (cue Dora music)

There are those nicknames I say to both my boys. Sweetheart. Lovey. Cuteness. Cute stuff. Sweetness. Sweet boy. Cute boy. E-boy. Connor-Connor-Connor(using a batter-batter-batter accent) and on and on. It seems a bit smaltzy, but soon enough they will be too old for the really sugary sweet names, so I have to lay it on now before they scrape it off.

There is Thomas, Tom, Tommy. I prefer Thomas, although Jesse and Tewlyn (or Jess and Tew) convinced me to say "Tom", which I was loathe to say for years. In fact, I believe it was Jess and Tew who actually heard me first say "Tom". (are you out of your mind?) I don't say Tommy, I think it is a bit too diminutive, but his family tends to mix it up and uses all three names. I prefer saying "Pup", our universal nickname for each other.

And there is me. Those who know me very well know that I like to be called Linda. Not Lin. I would correct folks who called me "Lin" by saying "DUH". (as in finish the name, you jerk!) (jerk is an inside joke, friends, don't get all huffy) My future husband was taken aback by this early in our dating life. He just calls me Pup now.

By the way, as a complete sidebar, I am not in the mood for writing. However, I read a very insightful article saying that I should practice writing every day. So here I am. It feels lame today, but perhaps I'll have a bit more energy tomorrow. The boys decided to take 2 hours to actually get to sleep tonight. Fun. Those sweet, cute, lovey, insomniac little boys.

P/S: The picture of Connor is solely for its cuteness factor, just for fun.
P/P/S: I don't know why I am writing with a lot of asides. (what's my deal?)