Terms of Endearment

What do you call your Cuban mother? (or your mother of any nationality for that matter...)

I started wondering about this earlier when I noticed that my sisters and I call my mom by different names.

Her given name is Luz Aurora and her first precocious granddaughter, Annette, liked the sound of that and so christened her Luza. The name stuck. Now practically everyone she knows, including her other 15 grandchildren call her Luza. In fact, my parents were often known as Papi and Luza.

Ironically, Annette (the name giver) calls her Abuela. I think Amy Kikita calls her that, too.

My sisters and I refer to her as Luza or when talking to one another, "your mama" (sounding more like 'yo mama' but that's not important right now), but call her Mami or Luza to her face. She called her own mother, Mamá.

Do my own kids do this? Sort of. It depends on their level of need.

Adam calls me Mo-o-o-m-m. The way he says it sounds like it has multiple syllables. Amy does too, I noticed, but only when she is sick and wants attention. Otherwise, she calls me Mami. ;-)
Lucy calls me Mamacita when she thinks I need cheering.
To Jon I'm Mom. He says it quickly. In a short burst. He's efficient that way.

My kids: "Mom, do we have Luza this weekend?"
My niece: "Is the Grandma going to be at your house this weekend?"
My sister: "Your mama wants to be at your house this weekend."

Three itterations of the same thing: My mom (how I always refer to her when I'm writing about her) will be spending her birthday weekend here at my house. The party is tomorrow.

But it got me thinking....