Long ago I named myself.  When we had a baby, I decided I wanted to be called “Mama”.  I don’t know why I like that term, but I do, so that’s who I am.  But recently I’ve been going through a bit of an identity crisis and renaming.

First, Judah decided he wanted to call me something different.  A few weeks ago he asked me what my other names were besides “Mama”.  I told him that some people call me Christie, and that other people call me Mrs. Lyons.  He decided that he would like to start calling me Mrs. Lyons, and he has faithfully done that very thing ever since our conversation.  Often, through the other noises in the house, I’ll hear a little voice calling, “Mrs. Lyons!  Mrs. Lyons!”  I sometimes answer, “Yes, Mr. Lyons?”  The funny thing is that I often tune out all of the voices saying “Mama”, but I usually respond to “Mrs. Lyons”, so I guess Judah has figured that out.

The next change was about a week ago.  Amelia has heard Laura calling me “Mother” at times, and she must have liked the sound of that, because she announced to me one day that she would like to start calling me “Mother” if that was ok.  I told her that was fine.  What doesn’t seem to be quite as fine is when I call her “Daughter” in return.  I think it’s a fitting answer, but apparently Amelia doesn’t think so.

So now only four people call me “Mama”.  One calls me “Mrs. Lyons”, and another calls me “Mother”.  I am curious to see what happens next.