I want to be MOMMY!!

Well, it would be if I ever got called Mommy!  

I walked into the toddler room today and was greeted by a toddler, running to me, with his arms up, yelling excitedly, "Nicki, Nicki, Nicki".  

Normally, this would thrill me, especially with it being a child who hadn't said my name before.

But not this time.  

Because it was MY child.  

My child who has been saying some version of "Daddy" for six months.

My child who is perfectly capable of saying "mom" but when he says it, really means "mine".

Yes, my child now calls me Nicki.

I expected this.  He hears the other teachers call me Nicki a hundred times a day.

I predicted this.  He hears the kids call me Nicki a million times a day.

I knew this was coming.  He even hears me refer to myself as Nicki countless times a day.

But that doesn't mean that I have to like it!

I want to be MOMMY!

I want him to tell everyone he sees in the grocery store that I am his Mommy like he does with Daddy.

I want the world to know that I am this adorable, smart little boy's mommy.

But for now, I am his Nicki.

I guess it is better than not being anything!

I know that it will past and that in time I will be Mommy.

But for now, I will be sad about it.

It is rather ironic that I am upset by this.

Normally when my toddlers learn to say my name, it is exciting!

I have never been disappointed when a child said my name for the first time before, even when they pronounce it in some unflattering way, like "Titty".

But not this toddler!

All I want him to say is "MOMMY"!

Baby Talk

I absolutely LOVE listening to Liam "talk".  Mostly, he just babbles away to himself or his toys but often, he is very obviously talking to me.  I haven't the slightest idea what he is trying to tell me but as long as I look interested and reply when he pauses, he just keeps going as if we were having a real, perfectly coherent conversation.  Sometimes our conversations are happy, sometimes they are funny, sometimes they are very serious and on other rare occasions they are very sad.

He even has conversations with his bedtime dragon and teddy bear before he goes to sleep at night and when he wakes up in the morning.  I love listening to those ramblings through the baby monitor.

He does have a small collection of or real "words".  And by words, I mean things that resemble words that he uses regularly.

ada, da, dad, addy - are all variations of dad (this was also his first word)

mom, ma - obviously this is mom, however we don't hear this one very often, I am afraid that he is going to call me Nicki before he calls me mom because he hears everyone at daycare calling me Nicki all the time!

cat - actually means cat!

kitty - this usually means bunny

dag, dog, doggie - dog

catty - this is what he calls his stuffed sheep, when he is really excited it could mean cat or bunny!

ah da - all done, although he doesn't quite get the meaning!

hi - means hi and bye

oh-oh - his favorite word!

ba - ball

dor-da - Georgia, his daycare girlfriend's name

night - good night, although this is a fairly new one that he hasn't said very often

I really do love this part of the infant/toddler stage as they slowly develop from a few little words to talking in full sentences.  And it is even more fun and exciting now that it is my own little boy.  I can only imagine that if Liam continues to talk as much as he does now we are going to have many interesting conversations in the years to come!