When I found out I was pregnant I envisioned my child calling me Mommy (or Mummy) and then settling on Mom when they got older.

When my daughter started calling me Mama I was surprised, it was unexpected.

Now I have grown to love being Mama. I love the way she says it as much as I love when I ask her for a hug and she gets a big smile on her face and says yes.

It’s a musical word.

Some days I seem to be her biggest enemy and some days I’m everything to her. I guess it will always be this way.

She models me, does what I do and does things like I do. When she bakes in her play kitchen she puts her toy laptop on the table because that’s where I get my recipes from. When she sits at my desk:

It’s a lot to get used to, someone watching what I do and listening to me talk and taking everything in.

Sometimes when she asks me a direct question about something I probably shouldn’t have said I realize just how closely she’s listening.

All the unexpected things coming from being a mama.