Mama Mo

For much of today I was the preferred parent. Funny timing given my recent post and comment exchange with aimee/greeblemonkey about this very topic.

I stayed home because our daughter has had a fever for the past 30-some hours on and off, leaving her intermittently fussy and needy -- with a particular yearning for "mama mo" (she calls milk "mo" and you can probably figure out what "mama mo" then stands for ... but, in case that's too obtuse, yes, I am still breastfeeding at 18+ months). Given what we thought was her feverish state of mind, though, she had moments in which she really didn't know what she wanted. Consider this exchange when she was screaming herself silly:

Us: Are you hungry? Do you want food?
Her: Yeeaah (with a whiny lilt). No!
Us: Do you want mo?
Her: Yeeaah (same whiny lilt). No!
Us: Do you want mama mo?
Her: Yeeaah (again, the whiny lilt). No!
Us: Do you want to read?
Her: Yeeaah (same whiny lilt once more). No!
Us: Do you want to dance?
Her: Yeeaah (ditto on the whiny lilt). No!
Her: Elmo! Bubbles! Anya (referring to her favorite song of late, "Hey Ya Na," from her Music Together class)
Us: OK, so you want Elmo?
Her: Yeeaah. No!
Us: OK, so you want bubbles?
Her: Yeeaah. No!
Us: OK, so you want Hey Ya Na?
Her: Yeeaah. No!

You get the picture.

As much as it was painful to see her this way, we ended up having to turn away giggling at one point (probably our best defense mechanism in the moment). It turned out, by the way, that it was hunger that muddled her thinking, not the fever.

I felt so needed as she melted into me while we sat on the kitchen floor (the only place she'd tolerate at that point) eating dinner that my husband creatively assembled for us (our daughter insisted that she eat bacon, the last food I'd offer to someone with a fever and a food she's eaten only twice in her life but for which she seems to feel a deep passion -- so much for healthy eating habits!).

The tides do indeed turn. I only hope my husband didn't feel rejected -- seeing it from the other side, it's a lot clearer that it's not personal and it's very circumstantial. How enlightened I feel!