Who's your Mama?

Are you a 'Mummy'? 'Mum'? 'Mother'? 'Ma'? Despite having given birth and nurtured a gorgeous little girl for the past 18 months, I have been none of these. The word "Daddy" is heard from morning till bedtime. But on the subject of who I am, Naomi has been stubbornly silent.

Except for a brief and horrifying period of several weeks where she called me 'Sasha'!!! What the?? I am NOT having one of these open, new-age friend relationships with my daughter. Where is the respect? The honouring of parents? Although, it wasn't surprising as everyone else in the world calls me 'Sasha' (or Sweetie). All the daycare children that I care for call me Sasha. Thankfully, she is over that phase.

One day when playing the "Where's such-and-such person" game, I said "Where's Mummy?", and Naomi pointed to herself. The penny dropped - the words sound too similar for her to differentiate and all my saying 'mummy' was just confusing her. So instead, Brad and I have been saying 'Mama'. And guess what? Yesterday, Naomi said "Mama", and when I said (with tears in my eyes) 'Yes, blossom?" she went on chatting to me about the rocks that she had collected from the garden - completely oblivious to the moment of pure joy that she had just brought me. She has said it many times in the last 24 hours, and I may even get used to it -- but I will never stop enjoying the sound of it.