Is Daddy the New Mommy?

It seems my little Jude Bug doesn't like me anymore.  Lately, in a rather strange turn of events, Jude seems to prefer her dad.  And by prefer I mean she cries hysterically when he leaves for work.  She refuses to let him put her down when he's home and she will not let me get her out of the crib after nap time until she is certain that Daddy isn't in the house.  Oh, and here's the kicker, she looks utterly dejected as she literally swats away my advances. 

This is the face I am greeted with:


Daddy, of course, finds this whole situation quite humorous and is delighted by Jude's intensity of feelings toward him.  There's just one little hitch...

Jude calls him Mommy.

We've been very perplexed by this whole situation.  Jude clearly knows that her father is called Daddy but if I am around, his name is Mommy.  When he walks in the door after work, she runs to him yelling, "Mom-meee!  Mom-meee!"  Hmmm...

As the whole going-to-work meltdown played out this morning, my husband had an epiphany.  It appears that this child who we both adore immeasurably seems to be feeling a bit left out.  Daddy (known to the non-bloggy world as  child psychiatrist extraordinaire) surmised that there isn't enough Mommy to go around (well, duh!) for Jude so she is having him fill the role.  She doesn't want to share. 

It makes sense, I suppose, but I am unnerved by the idea that I am not meeting the emotional needs of my child.  I understand kids go through periods of favoring one parent over the other but I've never heard of the intentional misidentifying of parents.  I just hope the whole thing gets worked out sooner rather than later. 

After all, what's Daddy going to do those useless nipples?

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