Now, I am ‘Mama’

My two and half year old daughter has started calling me Mama now. She started it yesterday. At first, I thought she wanted to eat because we refer to food as ‘mama’. When I asked her if she wanted to eat, she said ‘no’. And then, she indicated that she was calling me. When she called me that, she had a different tone of voice and she seemed to be pleading me for attention. I was surprised that she should coin a special word that is something like a codeword between us to mean something.

Now she seems to have forgotten the word ‘mummy’ altogether. She calls me Mama. But, again, when she wants some special attention – something like a cuddle and some extra pampering, she calls me ‘Mama’ in a long, begging tone. And I melt. She knows exactly how to capture my heart. I think it is also this special bond – the change in the tone of our voice and the imploring looks that only mother and daughter understand, that make us feel closer to each other than anybody else.

We were going out to give some food to the dogs and she wanted me to carry her after we had descended two levels of the building. When I asked her to walk, she went, ‘Mama, up. Tired.’ I couldn’t help but carry her. And then, she insists that she is still a baby. I remember writing in my blog around two months back that she says, she is still a baby. She still clings on to it. She sure is still a baby to me and I can’t really imagine when she will be all grown up and walking out of home to settle down on her own. If there is one thing I wish were permanent, it is that she be my baby all our lives. She will be in a sense, but it won’t at all be the same, except for our love. And another thing – we will still sing together in a very rough loud voice and we will forget the rest of the world when we are together.