Hello, my name is...

Not too long ago my sister and her two beautiful boys spent the weekend at our house. It is always nice when we are able to get together. Her oldest son and Autumn are only 18 months apart and love spending time together. Recently, Autumn has become his shadow and wants to do everything that he does and say everything that he says.

Since my nephew starting speaking he has called Steve and I, "Uncle Steve" and "Aunt Kim". The weekend that they visited, I noticed there were times he would leave off the "Uncle" or "Aunt" when referring to us. No biggie.

As all weekends do, this one came to a close and it was time for my sister and nephews to pack up and head home. We all said our goodbyes and went on with our day. Later that evening, Steve and I were having a conversation in the kitchen, when we heard Autumn's little footsteps coming down the hall. "KIM!" she yelled.  Steve and I looked at each other, unsure of what we had just heard. "That's not what she said", Steve said.

The "KIM!" that we both thought we had heard was quickly followed by a "STEVE!". I looked at Steve and asked, "So how do we handle this?". By this time Autumn was standing in the kitchen with us, wondering why neither of us had answered her call. I looked at her and said, "Autumn, I am Mama and this is Dada." I watched a small smile appear on her face and realized this had now turned into a game. Steve and I decided that the best course of action would be to ignore her calls when she chooses to use our first names. Sounds reasonable, right? Wrong.

Autumn's fasination with calling us by our first names comes and goes. Since that first correction in the kitchen, she knows that is not what she is supposed to be calling us and has started doing it just to see our reactions. Ignoring her worked at first, until my clever child had a realization. There are some places where it is nearly impossible to ignore someone.

Last weekend we were driving in the car when Autumn started calling Steve by his first name. He followed suit by ignoring her and instead of calling for him a few more times and then quiting, she continued. Over and over and over again. For about three solid minutes we listen as Autumn yelled, "STEVE!", her voice getting louder each time. Since we were driving in the car there was no where to go. She had us trapped.

It took everything in us not to start laughing.