what's in a name?

after taylor's birthday post, i had a few people ask about his nick name "mr. goodbar". when he came home from guitar yesterday with one in his hand, it promted us to do a silly little photo shoot. after i saw how much of taylor's personality came through in these photographs (most of the poses were his idea) i decided that now is as good a time as any to tell the story of how mr. goodbar came to be....taylor came home from school one day in the seventh grade, devestated because the girl he had a crush on for years, was moving out of state. i suggested doing something nice for her before she left, but he was completely against it, that would mean actually having to talk to her of course! i finally convinced him that because he has known her since first grade, and she was his friend and was probably struggling moving so far away and it would be a nice thing to do. so off to the grocery store we went in search of candy bars to make a poster/good bye note for her. taylor wasn't too thrilled about this idea, until i explained that it didn't have to be romantic in nature - just friendly, and then he was cool with it - boys are so weird! so he says there is no way, no how that he is signing his name to the embarrassing candy bar poster and that his form of delivery will be to doorbell ditch her because he doesn't want her to know that it was him. so what's the point of this if she doesn't even know who it's from? whatever. so he picked out a "mr. goodbar" to replace his signature and i called him that all night making the poster - except i said it really sappy-like, you know, "ooooo, missssster goooooood baaaaar", ya, he showed me how much he loved that by rolling his eyes every time i said it, but it was just so funny i couldn't resist. why is so fun to tease our kids? so we go to deliver the poster and find her DAD out in the driveway packing the van for the next day's long drive making a doorbell ditch an impossible delivery method. taylor begged me to just drive away, whatever, i spent like $15 bucks on that stupid poster, and he was going to deliver it! finally, allie ended up delivering it, with taylor ducking in the back seat. only, the dad says, "oh let me go get her for you so you can say good bye to her!" thinking that allie must be one of her friends. at this point, taylor thinks he might be sick to his stomach but i am howling with laughter the whole time, it was just so funny to see this side of him that i had no idea was even there! so she comes out and says good bye to allie, knowing of course who's little sister she is and even waves to the car, to the non-visible taylor sinking and dry heeving and wanting to die in the back seat. it turns out that allie actually used the words, "my brother was too chicken to deliver this to you, so here you go." he didn't take that news too well, but you know what? it didn't matter that she knew who delivered it, because i wrote "taylor" underneath the candy bar when he wasn't looking. she would've figured it out as soon as she had a hankering for chocolate and peanuts. (this mug shot-style pose is taylor's favorite of the shoot) and so...now you know the story of how "mr. goodbar" came to be part of the entorage of nick names taylor answers to around our house.