Mummy

Being Canadian, I grew up pronouncing 'Mom' like 'Mum', and 'Mommy like 'Mummy'. Ever since Clara was born, Chad has referred to me as 'Mummy' (it was up to him to be the model, since I am completely creeped out by mothers who refer to themselves in the third person - "Come here so Mommy can tie your shoes."...."Mommy will help you fill out your college applications...."), and I have hoped upon hope that Clara would follow suit with the Canadian pronunciation. She never did. When Trevor got past the Mama stage, I kept my fingers crossed that he would take Chad's lead and go with 'Mummy'. No luck. Then, several months ago, Trevor just up and switched from Mommy to Mummy one day. Naturally, he got tons of positive reinforcement from me, and continued to be showered with affection every time he said it, so he permanently adjusted his pronunciation. Clara, on the other hand, has had 5 1/2 years or so of Mommy, and it is just too ingrained at this point for her to change. Or so I thought. Last week, out of the blue, she said, "I finished brushing my teeth, Mummy." I did a little dance of joy as she told me that she wanted to call me Mummy from now on. Yay.
And I have written proof. At our conference with Clara's teacher today, we were given this letter, written to us by Clara:
I still don't want to hear my name bellowed, whined, or called out seventeen times in a row. I still don't want to hear it shouted out in the tone that indicates that one of my children is about to accuse the other of doing something forbidden, dangerous, annoying, or mean. But any of these scenarios are just a tiny bit less grating now that I am Mummy.