Bribery

It is every mother's dream that her child's first word is Mama or Mommy or Amma, as in AB1's case. She is no different, she has been teaching Baby Girl to call her Amma from the time Baby Girl could squeak.

When Baby Girl started saying "mmmm" each time she eats something yummy, AB1 grew more hopeful that "Amma" shouldn't be too far away. After all, it's just a matter of "aaa" before and after the "mmm".

Baby Girl's vocabulary has been growing faster than her mother's grey hairs. She is now 2 years and 3 months. When bored, she puts her hands on her waist and says "what shall I do now?"

But "Amma" is still elusive. Each time she tries "call 'Amma'", Baby Girl replies "nooo..... Amacheeee" (which is what she calls her grandmas). After many fruitless attempts, she even tried to get her daughter to call her Mommy (which is me), but to no avail.

Last Saturday, I gave Baby Girl a stuffed elephant made from Thai silk, which I got from my recent trip to Bangkok.

Her Amachee coaxed her to thank me, "darling say, 'thank you Mommy'" and that cute little thing immediately echoed "thank you Mommy...." (I am omitting the fact that she called me Mommy another two times that Saturday).

Her Amma couldn't believe her ears - after 9 months of looking and feeling like a beached whale, 2 dozen bottles of Gaviscon, contractions, stitches, dirty diapers, midnight feeds, terrible-two tantrums...

And her darling daughter called her bestie "Mommy" first.

Never question the power of a Thai-silk stuffed toy elephant.