The End of an Era

Since I've become a mother, I have only been called one thing by both children....Mama.  Keely sometimes calls me Mommy but for the most part, I am Mama and James is Dada.  That's what I'm used to hearing from the kids when they want me, sometimes many many times a day and it's all I've been responding to since Quinn started talking, over 10 years ago.  I guess I always knew that it would end, but I didn't think it would be so dramatic to me when it did.  Just in the last couple of weeks, and seemingly overnight Quinn has started to call us Mom and Dad.  I first noticed it on vacation in Emerald Isle when he called to James in a store...Dad, come look at this!  Now, when he calls me Mom it sounds like an incomplete word.  It just doesn't sound right.  He occasionally slips back into Mama, but the majority of the time he calls me Mom.  Keely still calls me Mama or Mommy, so nothing has changed there.  After hearing your child call you something for 10 years, it's hard to get used to something else.  It's also another sign that he's growing up.  Sigh.

On another Quinn related note, I no longer have to pine for the days of his buzz cut.  No amount of bribery was enough, but a case of head lice convinced him to let James buzz it again after three years.  It only took one thorough and painful combing of his head for him to reconsider his stalwart position.  Keely's version is that he first went to look at a picture of himself with a shaved head, decided he liked how he looked, and told James to buzz it.  It's like looking at a different child.  He looks a tad younger to me, but it's nice for him to have a fresh start and to get all of that thick hair off his head.  I'm sure he won't let it happen again anytime soon, but for now it's light, easy and cool on these hot, hot summer days.

The pictures are before and  (sort of) after - with the swim cap on for his baby oil lice treatment, and the after is actually way before when he last had his hair this short 3 years ago.  Trust me, there's not much difference :)