Tata has Taya

The girls dressed for the prom just over a year ago. Tata is in yellow

Tata was once Naomi's best friend until something happened between them about a year ago. Recently Naomi found out that Tata was having a little girl too and all is forgiven. They plan on Maya and Taya to be good friends growing up together.

Yesterday Naomi received a text from her about 1 pm:

I am fully dialated (sic) and I am beginning to push now.

A text, dear Reader. Trust me, even if I knew how, I wasn't texting people as I was pushing. I don't think I was capable of uttering a coherent sentence. As it turned out, they had to wake her up to tell her that she needed to push. She had slept through her entire labor helped considerably by an epidural. And the epidural did not prolong the pushing: Taya came out after 20 minutes of pushing and texting weighing just the same as Ms. Maya: 7# 14oz. The name does NOT rhyme with Maya but is  an amalgam of Tata and Taylor.

The name Tata cracks me up. Apparently it does not mean the same thing in Filipino as it does here though the name does seem apt as a good percentage of her 100 lbs (if that) was devoted to breastage.It reminds me of that South American telenovela Sin Tetas, no hay Paraiso. Without tits, there is no paridise although when it was shown in the US, the offending words were changed to Sin pechos which I assume mean peaches. Also I am told that Tata, pronounced Tayta, is Arabic for paternal grandmother. So Oliver and Daniel have a tata and it's not me. In Arabic, maternal and paternal relatives have different names.

I was going to title this post:

IS NAOMI AN ANOMALY?

or maybe

NAOMIE ANOMIE ?

I did title one post

NAOMI, I MOAN
that got lots of hits.

or

AMALGAMS AND ANAGRAMS

Good thing you don't have to listen to me mispronounce anomaly. But the answer to my question  is that now she does not seem to be. So many young women are having babies...she has a long list. But in our family she seems to be. When she first met with the public health nurse, she wanted me there. The first question the nurse asked me was  whether I had been a teenage mom myself. Should I be flattered that would put me in my thirties (damn, this hair dye job is working!) or insulted that Naomi was perpetuating another generation of white trash culture that I must be a part of? Instead I replied that the medical term used to describe me as I gave birth to Naomi was elderly. Yes elderly. OBs describe patients over 35 as elderly

See lady, I know medical terms. I can't be too uneducated, can I?

In my living room, there is a picture of an earnest young woman EUSEBIA LYDIA WAGNER ROSS.
On the back, my grandfather has written her life story. Born 1850. Married 1882. First child: 1884, Fourth child 1890 (my grandfather at age 40!). Last child: 1892 (at age 42!). Died 1910. Definitely Eusebia was NOT a teenage mom. She was a redhead from generations of redheads. I was the first to break the chain with my dishwater blonde (hate that term)hair but Naomi temporarily picked up the chain. In strong sunlight, there are glints of red in Ms. Maya's hair. My father's mother turned 39 shortly after his birth, her only child. Even my uneducated maternal grandmother was in her 30s when she had my mom.

Whether Naomi is an anomie or more correctly, a symptom of an anomie remains to be seen. She is trying to do right by Ms. Maya and has high hopes for her. We will have to help a lot.