my Russian roots...

OK, so I have no Russian roots. Not even any matryoshka dolls. But soon, we will have a Russian-ish branch in our family tree, and Eric and I have been trying to acquaint ourselves with the traditions and language of the Uzbek people. Starting with language.

When I was growing up, my brother called our mom "mamooshka". He was sure, and convinced me likewise, that it was the Russian word for mother. I went along with it. It was fun to say, and became a sort of nickname for her, and somewhere along the lines this made-up thing became truth in my mind.

Excited that I may already know some Russian, I googled Mamooshka. Nothing came up. I even tried more authentic-looking spellings (Mamuschka, Mamueschka, Mamyooshka, I know nothing about Russian, etc). Nothing. I went to a translation site, and typed in mother. All that came up is "Mat". Lame! They couldn't think of a more exotic word than Mat? really?

I'm sticking with Mamuschka. It's not like I haven't invented my own successful words before. (I could go into detail about this, but will spare you the time.)

Think about it... I'll never have that problem of being in a room full of moms and kids, and someone yelling "MOOOOOOOOM!!" and every mom turning around. I will not turn around because I am Mamuschka, not Mom. And with a name like Borat, my baby will not have the problem of me yelling "PAAAAAAAAAAAT!", and every boy/girl turning around. Yep, this is gonna work out juuust fine.