No foolin'

Luke's idea of a hilarious joke is this: "'O-F-F' spells 'on'! 'O-N' spells 'off!'" He tried to get a few kids into it this morning at school but no one else seemed to get it, or maybe no one else thought it was that funny.

Today's picture is of Zach (thanks, Bill-o) but the story is about Luke. Just add about three and a half years to this picture and you'll get the idea.

When it comes to making friends, Luke is extremely selective. He has his two best friends, Hatcher and Eitan, a few supporting friends, and after that all other kids are met with extreme skepticism. Like yesterday, when we were at the park, a boy came up to Luke on the swing and the first words out of Luke's mouth were, "No! I'm playing with this!" (I suggest to him: "How about 'Hi! What's your name? Would you like to play together?'" Luke insists that he is too "shy" to say that to someone. Hmmm.)

But when it comes to adults, friendship is an open book. So for instance the woman Luke befriended at the park the other day just happened to be the manager of the biggest bakery in town, and all of a sudden we are swimming in complimentary baked goods. Also, from the minute Luke and I set foot in the Tuesday farmers' market, all the vendors start getting ready for him: The fish guy pulls out the whole fish with eyes and teeth intact. The dried-fruit guy starts making his cat and bird noises. Tom the flower man gets ready to help Luke pick out his favorite irises. Bill the baker starts lining up some extra treats to slip into our bag. And of course everyone is happy to show Luke the hazard lights in their trucks.

Come to think of it, I had never really had a conversation with our hard-to-approach neighbor until Luke got into the picture. The other day the mailman delivered us her mail by mistake so we walked over to drop it in her box. Before I knew it, Luke was tap-tap-tapping on her door. "No - don't bother her!" I hissed, but it was too late and she came out to see what the commotion was. Twenty-five minutes and several rounds of conversation later, she went back in the house to get her car keys so that she and Luke could sit in the front seat of her little Mercedes coupe and talk about all of the buttons on the dashboard. ("I'm really into hazard lights," he explained, and for some reason she seemed to think this was completely reasonable. Well, she did raise a boy...)

I think it's fair to say that Luke, like his dad, is just very particular about things. He likes his breakfast just so, he wants his hair combed a certain way, and he wants the same thing for lunch every day. He loves his two best friends, in part because he's known them his whole life, but beyond that other kids are a little bit unpredictable, and probably, in his mind, there's less of a comfort zone than there is with adults. He's in for a little bit of a rude surprise next year when he and Hatcher and Eitan all go to different elementary schools. Until then, I'm going to view my job as helping him to keep a mind that is open to a world of funny, new, and unpredictable things.

Random (and unexplained) Luke quote for the day: "I like Uncle Joe, and I like Philadelphia, but I really don't like the rest of his state, Pennsylvania."