Language of the heart

August 12th, 2010 by Regina Brett

My grandson still hasn't picked a name for me. He either can't decide or he likes being a little rascal and teasing me by naming everyone in the world except me.

 

He just turned 17 months old and is a chatterbox. He can say "Up," "Aw done," "Mo peez," and "Tank oooh." Put a handful of nectarine slices on his high chair tray and he says, "Neck a reen." Give him some chunks of avocado, and he says, "Cah doh." But he won't say grammy, granny, gramma, or any other facsimile of grandma.

 

We've tried to trick him into it. We go around the table and say, "Say Poppa." The little guy complies. He'll name Da da, Ma ma, Luke, Ben, Joe, Adrienne (who he calls AD), pretty much everyone around the table and everything on the table. But when it comes to me, he just laughs. For a while I wondered if my name was "Ha Ha."  Not that I would mind.

 

He does speak the language of love that has no words. We sat on the floor playing blocks yesterday when I stood to check something in the kitchen. He grabbed my toes and wouldn't let go. He tried to pull me back to him by clinging to my toes. And when I leave, he says, "Muh!" and blows me a kiss.

 

One day he'll reveal who I am to him by name, but for now, his heart knows, and that's enough.

Comments (2)

Elaine — October 24th, 2011 (06:14)

My nephew Joey, who is know 18, was the sunshine of my life when he was born. I took him everywhere with me when he was a toddler. But he never had a name for me. One day I was going to take him to Walmart with me , his Mom was putting on his coat asked Joey Who is taking you to the store? . Joey just kept looking up at me with his big eyes finally said LA LA . I called everyone in the family to tell them I had a name!

Cheryl Vannoy — August 17th, 2010 (06:50)

It is so important to let children choose the name by which they will call you. My oldest nephew, now 18 knew when he was little that he had more than one grandmother but wanted to be able to distinguish between the two. He refers to my mother as Mee Maw his paternal grandmother as grandma. As he was the first child for my sister, all of her subsequent children (two girls another two boys) also refer to my mother as Mee Maw.

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