At our home, I speak Hebrew to our son and my husband speaks English. So when we were deciding what we wanted him to call us, naturally John wanted to be called Dad or Da-da and I wanted to be called Ima (mom in Hebrew). When Kyle was born, we repeatedly told him who we were. Me, Ima and John, Da-da. Of course, it wasn’t until Kyle was over a year before he said any real words.
I don’t want to brag, but Kyle’s first word was Ma-ma. Not exactly Ima, but he actually meant me when he said it (not his favourite toy or stuffed animal, but me, really!). His second and third words were Ball and Goal, respectively. About a month ago Kyle started calling me by my first name. It wasn’t just a simple Maya but usually, it was a very demanding, loud cry for help that sounded like MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYA!! And from then on, it was “Maya, Maya… Maya,…Maya, Maya, Maya…Maya!”
I still continue to say Ima as my name to try to get Kyle to say it, but it’s of no use yet. Kyle has since learned to say Da-Da and a few days later he learned to say Co-Co (a bird’s name) and Bobba (aka Bobby, my brother’s dog). For everything else, he says “Ga”. I’m definitely enjoying seeing Kyle saying new words as each week goes by. The best was just last week when we told Kyle that we were going to watch Da-da play hockey and he immediately put up his hands and said “GOAL”. It really was the cutest thing ever.
I know there’s a stage when all kids call their parents by their first name, and maybe Kyle’s came early. I guess for now, I’ll take Maya over nothing. At least he said “Ma-Ma” before “Da-Da” š
