A New Year With A New Name

There are many times in my life that I consider memorable. Coming to America, my first time up on stage doing stand-up, graduating college, getting married and MOST importantly the birth of my child. I feel very blessed to have experienced these things. It seems with the addition of my daughter, every day and every second have become more special. She brings an unexplainable joy to me in whatever she does and says.


We rang in the new year with some dear friends, the Chambers family, in Pleasanton, CA. We love spending time with them because our daughter Isabella also gets to spend time with their three kids. On our drive up, we discovered that our daughter had developed car sickness. Not fun. She also had a cold so she was not in the best of spirits. Despite her illness, she still took part in all the fun. She played with all the smaller kids and observed the older kids, mentally taking note of what they did so that when she was bigger she could do the same.

During this trip my daughter also experienced night terrors. I know they advise that you let them sleep through it but that is not so easy when you are a guest at someone else's home. Needless to say, my husband and I got very little rest.

After a few days, I took a much needed nap and my husband took our daughter out to play for a few hours. When they came back he said she asked for me and I said, "How???". This was surprising because in my daughter's 16 months she has said many words but has never uttered the word "mama". She says both "dada" AND "papa" but never "mama", which was starting to hurt my feelings. She reached for me and I carried her and after a few minutes my husband took her away and she reached for me again and said with such urgency, "Mama!!!!" I couldn't believe it! FINALLY! I was in such shock I just looked at her and made sure I wasn't hearing things. Then she looked directly at me touched my face and said, "Mama?" I got teary-eyed and answered, "Yes, mama." It meant so much to hear this little person call me for the first time. It was the best present I could receive to start off the new year.

Since then, I have heard her say it sparingly. I asked the pediatrician why it took so long for her to say it and her response was, "All children are different. And maybe the fact that you're with her most of the time, she doesn't feel the urgency to call for you as much." Which made sense. All I know is that when I do hear "mama", it's music to my ears. In fact I gotta go, I just heard it again. Mommy's coming!