The disappearance of Now-ee

I have never been big into indulging baby-talk, even in babies. I talked to Hailey endlessly in grown-up dialog way way before she could say "What does that mean, Mom?" Part of that was probably attributed to the fact that proper grammar was emphasized in my home growing up, the other part was probably because I was lonely and wanted a grown-up to talk to and was afraid I would forget how to speak like one. (Another big chunk is probably because I am not silly enough, something I am really trying hard to work on. Hailey is my coach, making me be her dance partner when she watches Cinderella or Dancing with the Stars.)

I constantly correct Hailey when she says aminals, or pasketti, or pacuter. It really doesn't make a difference, but I do it anyway. The only exception has been Hailey's pronunciation of cemetery, which she called "nes-e-fary." Way too funny to correct. I honestly don't think I've given her a complex with all the correction, and her only consistent mess-up is aminals nowadays, so. . . it must be working, right?

This was my view of baby-talk until Nora started talking and referring to herself as Now-ee. This is about as saccharin-sweet as you can get, but when Nora looks in the mirror, grins, points and yells Now-eeeee! it grows on you. As a knee-jerk reaction, I at first tried to correct her (shame!) and let her know it was Nora in the mirror instead, but the name has stuck. John calls her Now-ee, and now Hailey and I use the nickname. The pronunciation must make sense to her though: Momm-y, Dadd-y, Haile-y. . .

Yesterday, Now-ee was gone. I picked up Nora out of her crib, and she looked into the mirror and said, "Hi Nora!" A surprising thing happened to me. I was just so sad. I am usually so proud to hear a new word or a word said better, but I asked her, "You mean Now-ee, right? Where's Now-ee?" (So unlike me to propagate poor pronunciation.) She responded by pointing to herself and declaring "Nora" as if she were affirming to me that she had just grown up and Now-ee was just too silly for her now. I'm sure John will still call her Now-ee and the nickname will stick around here for a while, but to me, Now-ee has disappeared. Now that she's ditched the name herself, it just ain't cute anymore.