'Ayvanization' begins

I guess it was inevitable that Ivan was eventually going to realize that not all people will be pronouncing his name correctly--including Andy's family--but will be tempted to pronounce it "Ayvan" not Ivan.

He told me the other day that he's Ayvan, not Ivan, but we corrected him and told him his name was Ivan.

I didn't think about that when we named him Ivan. I wanted a Croatian name that was pronouncable in English. (And Ivan is as Croatian as it gets. If I were in Croatian, I probably would've not named him Ivan since everyone is named Ivan.) I didn't think about the fact that once he gets to school that it will inevitable that people will start calling him Ayvan. I'm just hoping that in this multi-ethnic, multi-lingual ares where we live it will be less of an issue than it would've been in a more homogenous part of the country.

Along the same lines, Medic has suddenly become his "little bear." I assume that's how teachers in preschool refer to him. Because they obviously wouldn't know that Medic's name is Medic!

Then when I ask him to tell words in Croatian, which I test him on every once in a while when we read books, he seems to know some but not all. Or at least can't remember them at that moment. Or is just pulling my leg, because I know he understands me 100 percent. 
If I ask him "how do you say 'tree' in Croatian, and he doesn't respond, he'll stall.

"Treebranch," he'll say and crack up laughing because he knows that he didn't say it in Croatian.

It's a rather clever way to get around the answer, I must say, which always gets a giggle from me.