Hey Chopped Liver!

It didn't take very long after my daughter was born for me to come to the conclusion that I was chopped liver. I think this is true for most mothers. I spent all day with my daughter. I fed her, bathed her, dressed her and even sang her to sleep. I slaved over the stove making her homemade baby food and I took several pokes in the eye every time I cut her fingernails. I read to her, I played with her, and when she was a toddler, I even let her brush my hair. I spent several weeks in the hospital when I was pregnant with her and as a result of having severe eclampsia, I had quite a dramatic delivery. You would think that after all of those things, I would have been her favorite person in the whole world, but the truth is, as a baby, when it came to favorite people, Daddy won hands down.

Don’t get me wrong, he is a great guy and a wonderful father. He played with her and changed her and gave her baths. I didn't begrudge her love for her Daddy, but like all mothers, I wondered why it is when he came into the room, I became chopped liver.

He was even her first word. I know that most babies say Da Da first, so it wasn’t a total shock when she babbled his name at about 6 months old. We had been waiting for those first words. I had been coercing and cajoling her to say, “Mama.” every chance I got. I had been waiting so long to hear that word.

She even looked as if she were trying to form the M sound with her lips. I was overjoyed. I just knew that any moment that wonderful word, “Mama” was going to burst forth from her lips. Her first word came on a Sunday afternoon. Her father and I were standing at her crib, glancing down at her and as she woke up she looked up at us with sleepy little eyes and grinned. She stretched her little arms up and gurgled, “Dada!”

Daddy of course was thrilled and I began to wonder why it is all babies seem to day Dada before they say Mama. I think I may have come up with a theory that explains it. I think that all babies’ first sound is DA. As soon as they hear their voice, they are so thrilled with the sound that they repeat it. Dada…Dada…Dada. And thousands of years ago a father happened to be in the room when baby said this and he decided that baby must be saying his new name for father. Thus the name Daddy was born and we mothers were suddenly relegated to the role of chopped liver. Think about it. I can see how a baby would say Mama for Mother, but where do they get Dada out of Father? I am telling you, it is a conspiracy.

I am almost convinced of this conspiracy theory. Perhaps if her second word had been Mama, I could have fully embraced the theory. Unfortunately her next word was Meme. At first I thought that perhaps that was her cute name for me, but it turns out that Meme is her blanket. So in the scheme of things in our house, the order was Daddy, Blanket, and Chopped Liver…I mean Mama.

My daughter is three now and there is a new baby who has yet to utter his first word...I am trying to convince him that Mama is the word to start with, but I have a feeling I am going to be Chopped Liver all over again.