I, Mommy

I read somewhere that you're not supposed to use pronouns when talking to infants because it will be some time before they have any grasp on the concept of I, you, we, etc. Therefore, I generally talk in the third person and say Sophie rather than you, ie Mommy loves Sophie. In a continuation of this, and according to the same book/article and to encourage her language skills, I narrate a large portion of my day for Sophie. Therefore, I walk around describing my activities: Mommy's going to rinse the dishes, Mommy's giving the kitties treats, Mommy has a headache. I really don't mind this, although I felt a little weird at first. (Not to mention the fact that I was a MOMMY!)

However, I now find myself doing the same thing even when Sophie is not in the room with me and on a couple of rare occasions when I was out and about without her. Case in point, I went grocery shopping the other evening, leaving Sophie at home with Neil, a rare opportunity to have a luxuriously long grocery experience. I perused the deli counter at length, pondered the merits of all of the different yogurt flavors and window-shopped the salad bar with an insouciant I-may-but-I-may-not attitude.

So, as I was deciding between the hearty Italian bread and a crusty French loaf, the words came out of my mouth even as I was thinking them, "Mommy wants the French bread." To my embarrassment, I was not alone at the bread stand. An older man was standing a few feet away and clearly heard my announcement. He looked from me to my cart, I suspect just double checking that there was no child there, and then gave me a strange smile and walked away. I would like to think that he had children and a wife who did the same sort of thing, but its just as likely that he thought that I was a little touched in the head and wanted to get away, fast. I laughed then, of course, probably a bit maniacally, further cementing the idea in his head that I was cuckoo.

Eh, who cares, Sophie loves Mommy and that's enough for me.

Here's Gomez lounging in his little bed with his mouse (one of many) by his side. When I first saw him, he was belly up with all four legs in the air, but he composed himself into a more respectable cat position before I could get the camera. You can't tell from this picture, but there is a heat vent in the wall just to his right that is absolutely irresistible to both of the cats and is the reason the cat bed is where it is.