Daddy!!! Mom... yeah right.

Ok. I give up! I realize now that I made a mistake of teaching my daughter to say "dad" back before she was saying actual words... BIG MISTAKE! I am telling you that she is now 14 months old and has DAD nailed down. See his picture.. "Dad!" Hear the front door close... "Daddy!" We go ANYWHERE and I get her out of the car.. "Daddy!" But "Mommy"... NEVER COMES OUT OF HER MOUTH! N E V E R! She knows HER name and she says DADDY just fine but she won't say my name for anything... When I do the whole "Say Mommy.." bit, she will either spit, laugh or slap me in the face with a "DADDY!" I spend all day long with this girl.. I get up with her at night.. Wake up with her every morning at 5 or 6am when she's done with her bed.. I get her breakfast, lunch and dinner... Put her on the potty... Get her dressed... Play games with her and play with toys... I dance with her, sing to her, bounce her, rock her, carry her... The only time I'm NOT with this child is when she's asleep and that's if she's not sleeping ON ME! ALL of that... and still nothing. Is there a trick I'm not trying? I had equal attempts of Mom and Dad when I was teaching her to say actual words. When she picked up "Dad", I figured it was because it was easier since it's pretty close to "Duh". But that has since progressed to a squeaky, happy, joy filled "Daddy!" EVERY TIME SHE SEE'S HIM! And God forbid he leaves the room... Screaming... Crying.. It's like her little heart breaks leaving her completely devastated. Never mind that I'M sitting right there in the same room! By that point I'm chopped liver. (Which I'm guessing is a bad thing since it's always referred to in cases like this.. Not a liver fan, couldn't tell ya!) I don't get it... She'll say "Mmm..." When she's ready to eat or see's something yummy but she will not take it past that. She even tries the phrases "there it is" and "there they are" when finding a toy or cup... I try to tell myself that "dad" is easier to say for kids and that when "mom" actually comes, it will something that was EARNED. That's what I said when she was 10 months old... Now, I'm starting to think she'll never say it out of spite! I guess it's not all that bad when I really think about it.. I have used it to my advantage... For example.. I'm comfy on the couch watching a movie when I hear her waking up from her nap on the monitor... My husband is sitting next to me on the couch... I say something like.. "Let's hear who she asks for, and THAT person will go in to get her and change her diaper..." HA! (It's always HIM, go figure..) ;) Things like that definitely make me feel better about being dissed by my toddling toddler. The only one of my kids to say "Mama" first was my oldest and that was only because Dad was in Iraq at the time. If he would've been home in that time frame I would bet anything that she would've been strolling around mumbling "dad, dad, dad" while clutching her sippy cup too. It's a no win thing to be a mom some days.. A lot of days... What a crock! The guy get's EVERYTHING positive when it comes to becoming a parent. He has the delivery of the "goods"... OOoooo... Really hard... He MAYBE holds a hand in the delivery room... and then what? Sure, there may be a few nights where he takes the baby out of the exhausted mother's arms and goes for a stroll around the dark house with her at 3am but most of the time he's sleeping to be able to go to work the next day. Meanwhile the mom juggles everything new with a baby, mixes it with everything not so new with two older kids while working and keeping up with the house, bills, chore like crap... And for some screwy reason, the new kid in the house is totally clingy to MOM yet chooses, yes CHOOSES to save her precious voiced words for DAD. What a load of...... My husband laughs when she says it when I tell her to say Mommy... I've even slapped him a little bit for that.. My friend seems to think that the high pitched scream sound my daughter does is her own way of saying mom.... Yeah.. Call me old fashioned in this case because I would MUCH rather just hear "MOM". Not that I don't love the piercing high pitched squeals... But yeah... I'm sure it's coming... Maybe when she's like... three? He can have her and her cute little "daddy!'s" through the terrible twos.. Grrrr... Kids... Sweet, precious, unnerving, crazy kids.... Good night guys and girls. This MOMMY is taking her ass to bed and staying there until late in the morning... DADDY will be the one getting up with the princess tomorrow! Yay for DADDY! (AND sleep!) Good night!!!! -Super Mom