the best mother's day present possible

for months, i have been trying to get little m to say "mommy."

but no, sweet thing calls me "ma".

she also calls my mom and matt's mom ma. that's right, we are all ma.

meanwhile, matt is daddy or sometimes daddy-oh (yes, seriously). she says all sorts of two syllable names, even three syllable ones: micah, cameron, kalia, becca, cassandra, etc etc.

but i have just been "ma."

i mean, i am the one who carried her in my body and gave (painful) birth to her-

i figured i could at least get that second syllable,

or be differentiated from the rest of the pack in some way.

it didn't seem like that much to ask in light of all the other

(may i add slightly less important) names she says...

for example, the name of the contractor working on our house,

who has been in her life all of two weeks.

just saying.

i asked sharon, her therapist at school, to work on it with her.

but to no avail.

no matter what sneaky tricks i tried, i was still just ma, lumped in with the grandmas.

which is all fine and good of course,

but i had it stuck in my head that i wanted that second syllable.

(silly, i know.)

on sunday, matt taught m an adapted version of a song we sing at school called "special, special family;" he changed it to "special, special mommy" and it was my mother's day present from little m.

except that of course when the time came to sing it to me, she refused.

not a single note or stanza.

instead, out of the blue she shouted, "MOMMY!"

i stopped and cheered (literally),

"you called me mommy!!!!!!!"

and my heart did a flip flop.

it was the best mother's day gift ever.

and since then, all week long, i have been mommy.

not ma.

mommy.

she's screamed it, whispered it, sung it, stated it.

mommy.

in fact, yesterday at target, (when i was standing all of two feet from her)

she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted at the top of her lungs,

"MOMMY! MOMMY!"

(and to add on to the gloriousness,

she has marched around the house singing the special, special mommy song,

which pretty much melts my heart every time)

love.

her.

(ps i give matt full credit for somehow getting her to say mommy. 100%.)