Blue for Science.

There are some urges worth satisfying as a first time parent. We consider the desire to thoroughly geek out with our baby boy to be one of those such urges. I mean, of course we want him to develop his own unique personality and grow up to fulfill his distinct personal aspirations... but we also expect, quite seriously, that he hold an affinity for some super nerdy stuff, just like Mommy & Daddy.

Among the prerequisites, in no particular order:

• Star Trek - He doesn't have to be an all out Trekker, but he should at the very least humor his father's sentiments for The Original Series and The Next Generation. See image above for what will likely be one of the first articles of clothing this little Falk will be forced, I mean proud, to wear.
• NES - It doesn't matter that by the time he is actually able to play video games we will all have virtual reality lenses built into our eyeballs; this child will know the 8 bit wonder of such classics as Super Mario Bros. (and Super Mario 3), The Legend of Zelda, Paper Boy, and Metroid. We might even plug in the Atari 2600 to play Pitfall. If he's lucky.
• 80s - 90s era punk rock - This is a tough category to roll into one because the snob in both of us wants to sub-categorize by genre and period. But for the sake of keeping it short, let's just narrow it to anything silly, punky, bratty or political. To name a few on baby's first mixtape: The Dead Milkmen, The Ramones, Jonathan Richman (& the Modern Lovers), Weird Al Yankovic, Bratmobile, Sleater Kinney, The Clash, and Devo. We'll save the more angsty, sweary stuff for circa 2025 (gulp).
• Star Wars - Believe it or not, Mommy owned Star Wars toys and action figures before she even met Daddy. We own every version of the trilogy ever released (damn you, George Lucas), but rest assured Tommy will first experience the original cut. And he will watch the true trilogy first, and those other crappy movies later. As our friend Brandon would say, "none of this 'Greedo shoots first' garbage". The force will be strong with this one.
• Mad Magazine - A Tommy/ Daddy pastime, the boys can sit on the porch and flip through decades of satire and silliness. Mommy will oblige. She was the one, after all, who got down on bended knee and presented Daddy with every issue of Mad from the year of his birth (1977) through the end of 1989. After, of course, he did the same with a sparkly diamond and emerald engagement ring.

We aren't planning a baby clone or childhood do-over, but we sure do get the warm and fuzzies at the thought of sharing these favorites with our little boy. Wrap it up in a flannel shirt-cardigan sweater-converse allstar package... and you've got yourself one dorky, happy family.