The First One

If you haven’t yet joined the baby club, you might not know what I didn’t know either until six weeks ago. Babies aren’t the only ones who get a new name when they pop into the world. Everybody in the family gets new names too.

I’m “Mom”, or more typically “Mama”. That doesn’t seem like rocket science, I know, but there were a few times when all of that babysitting lingo would roll off my tongue like silver and a “Kimmy’s here” would pop out. We’re obviously not letting Gideon call us by our first names, so I tried to correct myself and add a “Mama’s here” right afterwards. It’s a good thing he could barely see at that point because otherwise he may have thought I’ve got multiple personalities or something since it was just the two of us hanging out. I’ve pretty much kicked that habit, so he won’t spend his first year looking around for that Kimmy person.

Then there is Grandma. She was “Mom” or “Mommy” for about twenty-seven years and even though I started calling her “PJ” when I was in high school, the default was always “Mom”. And now there’s also Poppi (which I thought would be Poppy, but when he started posting here, he used the ‘i’ and I’ll just follow his lead). I can’t say that I ever called him “Rick” but he has been “Daddy” for forever.

Both of those names have been difficult for me to switch and when I’m talking to Gideon I frequently get them confused. I’ll be telling him who is going to do something in my baby talk voice “Mom’s gonna get you” and realize that I should’ve said “Grandma’s gonna get you” because I’m Mom and she’s Grandma. Or I’ll call Poppi “Granddad” or “Dad” when I say who’s stinky from being outside, or who is going to let him sleep on their chest and take a nap with him.

The biggest change has been Jud’s name. I’d always kind of sworn that I would not call my husband “Dad” because it seems a little freaky. It never seemed odd for my parents to refer to each other that way, but it was strange when friends did. Hearing a twenty-something reference her husband as “Daddy” just didn’t sit right and in my judgmental mind I thought “not me. I am never going to sound crazy like that.” But then we had Gideon and I realized that you can’t go around calling your spouse by their name to your child, or that’s what your kid will call them too. You know, if his first word was “Jud” it really wouldn’t be that cute. So here I am, calling my Jud “Dad” and “Daddy” and I don’t feel strange doing it. It doesn’t seem bizarre. It doesn’t seem wrong. It’s just right. It feels right. It sounds great.

Jud.

Dad.

It fits really well.

Happy Father’s Day, babe.