I called my mom “Nana” out loud today for the first time. She has another grandkid, but he calls her “Mommy.” It started out as “Mommy Bozorg,” which translates to big mommy in Farsi, but Anis (the nephew) shortened it to “Mommy.” I guess my sister (his mother) is okay-ish with that, but I’m not. Jonah’s already got two mommies. He needs a GD grandma. So I gently reminded my mom a few weeks ago that I thought she had “always wanted to be called ‘Nana’,” like she called her own grandmother. “Nana was pure love,” was what she said in response, so I took that as an affirmative and ran with it.

Every time she mentions Nana, she mentions her “grip.” Ya know – her satchel. Her bag. Her catchall. When Nana came to visit Mom’s family, she’d have something for each one of them in the grip. Seeing as there were seven kids, this was quite a feat. I asked her what Nana’d bring them, and she said she couldn’t remember, and it didn’t matter; there was one for each of them, and that’s what made it special.

Mom brought something for Jonah today. It’s a book called “I Love You More.” It’s pretty darn cute, and I can’t wait to read it to Jonah.

Here’s a picture of my mom holding the sweet nugget for the first time.