Vicarious Rocky

They describe him at school as a "mystery" and a "puzzle." I am starting to realize it's just a perfect storm of language delay + permissive parenting + deep seeded weirdness.

Example: Yesterday on the way to school Indy and I spent 20 minutes in the car pretending to be "Mommy and Baby dog." Which involved us having an entire conversation that randomly inserted "woofs" into sentences -- replacing real words. When we get to school, he sits down at the art table, waves at a little girl and says, "Hi Woof Woof!" The girl made a sour face and the teacher (who was sitting there) said, "Indy, let's use her name. What is her name?"
Indy: "Callia?"
T: "No That's Jenna. So you would say 'Hi, Jenna.'"
Indy: (Joyless) "Hi Jenna."

(incidentally he knows all the boys names, but the girls are all named the same thing. Olivia, Jenna, Callia, Ava, Lia, Layla, Lilly, Carloline and Catherine) He knows the names of last two. Gee, wonder why?

Then we proceeded to the turtle to say Good Morning (a tradition of ours) and Layla is looking at a book they made in school. Each child re-wrote the "Mary had a little lamb" song and put in their name and the "little animal" that they would have. Lots of dogs and cats and bunnies as one might expect. Guess what Indy has? "A Little Pepper." Layla told me that and then rolled her eyes.

That's when it hit me. OH! He's "weird." Of course, I would never call him that. I think he's creative and fun and sweet. But that's not how it's playing out for other people. To them, he's weird. My first instinct on that is to feel proud of him. Because who wants to have a "little dog?" Seriously, get a creative bone in your body! Then again, how would you feel if your child was "weird?" Am I doing him a disservice as a parent not discouraging barking at classmates?

I am leaning towards, "No, that's not my job." I am pretty sure that it's my job as a parent to love and accept barking, maybe even encourage it, full well knowing that the Jenna's and Layla's of the world are out there ready to squash his spirit.

Thoughts?