For meeeeee?

Phoebe has started to say a few cute things recently.

For one, she has started calling me "Mama" or "Momma" (I am never sure how to spell that) and it's adorable, but also off-putting because it's just...something I thought I'd heard the last of. I haven't been called "momma" in years. 

When Phoebe started talking she skipped right over that and went straight to "Mom."

She said it at the pediatrician's office once and the doctor was like, "Excuse me, did she just call you Mom?"

"Yeah," I said. 

"Tell me you have five older siblings without telling me you have five older siblings," the doctor (more or less) said. "Typically babies don't say mom right away. Mama is much more common."

It's true. That duplicated syllable ma (ma+ma = mama) is easier to accomplish than tacking a final -m sound onto mo- to make mo+m (mom). But, that's the way Phoebe did it...

Until recently when she's suddenly started calling me "Momma."

"Momma, hold me!"

"Momma, wipe mine own bum!"

"Me not happy. Momma—cheer me up!"

It's...weird...to hear. And I honestly don't know where she picked it up. But I'll take it. Because what's even the point of having a surprise baby with a big age gap if you don't get to be "Momma" for a least a little while longer?

*****

When anyone talks about getting something or having something or eating something, Phoebe—filled with all the hopey-changey feelings she can muster—will inevitably squeak out, "For meeeeeeeeee?"

The pitch she can slide to with that meeeeeeeeee is seriously incredible. 

"I'm just going to run grab a pair of socks," someone will say. 

And then Phoebe will say, "For meeeeeeee?"

"No, for me."

"Oh," she'll say, dejectedly. 

"Look what we got in the mail," I said not too long ago.

"For meeeeeeee?"

"No. You wouldn't want this. It's literally, like, tax documents."

"Oh."

And then, the other day (with Josie as my witness, because she was here, though I can't even remember the context for Phoebe's exclamation, but we'll pretend it was about cookies) we were opening a box of Vienna Fingers to celebrate the departure of Miriam, Rachel, and Josie on their big trip to Vienna.

The cookies aren't pretend. They are real. I just wanted to clarify because I said I would pretend this was about cookies. We actually had cookies...I just can't remember if this is where Phoebe said what she said.

I have never had Vienna Fingers before. I'm not sure the fact that they were even a thing had ever registered in my mind before. But I saw them at the store and they were on sale for some reason, so we grabbed a package so we could have some Vienna Fingers before this Vienna trip. 

"We should have those cookies before we clean up all the way," I suggested as we were clearing the table after dinner yesterday. 

"Cookies???!!!" Phoebe drooled.

"Yes," I said. 

"For this little girl?" she asked, pointing to herself excitedly, each word rising in pitch. 

Yes! For that little girl!