Meet the Bear Family

For the past month or so, Kayla has been insisting that we call her “Baby Bear.”

Okay, I think I can deal with a name substitution for a little bit. A phase, right? Sometimes we’ll call her “Kayla,” and she reminds us sternly, “No, I’m Baby Bear!” (with an emphasis on Baby)! We've tried figuring out why she wants to be called Baby Bear. We’ve asked her, “Where’s Kayla? What happened to Kayla Jen Huang?” and she answers, “No, I’m Baby Bear!” in that same stern voice with a little bit of a lip pout. Sometimes she gets really angry that we've called her Kayla and yells until we say, "Okay, sorry, Baby Bear."

Then, she says that my name is “Mama Bear” or sometimes it's “Mommy Bear.” And George, of course, is “Daddy Bear.” But here’s where it gets confusing. You’d think that Jocelyn’s name would be “Jocie Bear” but it’s not. It is apparently “Kayla Bear.” We don’t get it. I don’t think Kayla does either, because she started slipping up a couple of days ago. She started to say, "Jocie Bear – I mean, Kayla Bear—". It was kind of funny. She corrects me if I refer to Jocelyn as "baby" and says, "No, she's Kayla Bear!!"

Kayla will sometimes say grace before dinner. Her prayer is the same each time and it goes like this:
Dear God,
Thank you for the food. Thank you for Mommy, Daddy, Jocie, Kayla and Libby. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Then we say, “Yay, great job, Kayla!” and Jocelyn happily claps because she knows we’re allowed to eat now.

Two days ago, Kayla’s prayer changed.
Dear God,
Thank you for the food. Thank you for Mommy, Daddy, Jocie, Kayla… uh… Baby Bear, Kayla Bear, Mama Bear, Daddy Bear, Libby Bear. In Jesus’ name, Amen.