Of Mommies and Men

The human communication in our household is often a challenge. A mispronounced word, a misplaced word, or a wrong word can and does lead to interesting and humorous outcomes. One such incident occurred on a particularly emotional day. Sometimes Latino has interesting ways of expressing his affection for me. On this occasion he said (I heard), "You will be beautiful until you are a mommy."

This was not a good day to say such a thing. I almost sent him out the door immediately. How could he be so shallow? What did he mean? If I gained a little pregnancy weight I would be ugly? I was raging and uncontrollably sobbing simultaneously. Latino was staring at me, seemingly stunned that I was so offended. He kept saying, "What? What did I say?" I responded, "You know what you said!!!!" He did; I did not. I had him repeat it a dozen times until he finally mentioned something about being wrapped in a cloth.

A mummy.

A mummy!

Those two words, though apparently they sound the same to Latino, have two very different meanings. I guess I can accept not looking beautiful when I am dead. We had just seen a film about pharaohs and mummies so I should have realized what he was saying. I started laughing uncontrollably. This overwhelmed him even more. He said, "I don't know what to do. You're crying. You're laughing...."

Get used to it.