Identity crisis

I've been thinking about this post for a while now...

Last summer little N. started calling herself "Kitty Princess". It came from nowhere. We were never able to locate the origin of this nickname. We thought of her favorite toy - a funky orange cat that she took to bed with her every night. We thought of all the cartoons she watched and the books we read. Nothing.

It was cute at first. We saw it as a phase and played along. Little did we know that this will last long enough to become really annoying. By the winter if anyone called her "sweetie", "dear", etc., she would immediately correct the person telling her/him that her name is "Kitty princess" and that's how she should be called (and mommy is a "deer/dear" and daddy is a "duck", don't ask me why). When they began to learn their full names and addresses at school, she even told the teachers that her last name is Kitty Princess. The "phase" turned obsession and went out of control. She even meows when she cries!

Recently we were discussing the Halloween, and N. said that she wants to be a butterfly. I said, OK. For a few days she called herself a butterfly, but then stopped (she will say that she's a butterfly if we ask her).

And so the "Kitty Princess" phase was over, just like that. And you know what? I kind of miss it. I don't understand it. I don't think that either my sis (mamolya) or I, or any child I know had ever nicknamed herself.


PS: if you ask her, she still thinks that our cat is her "boy sister".