Jasmyn refers to my ex-husbands' wife as her step-mum since they married, and simply calls her by her first name. Chloe is the same with her mother's partner. She just calls him by his first name.

Chloe has called me mummy since she moved in with us. She calls her Mother mummy also, and the girls both call my DP daddy. They don't seem to get confused about their different "mummies" and "daddies". They keep their families pretty separate.

Jasmyn did get upset the other day as she asked what the Baby's last name will be. When I said DP's last name, she got really upset as she thought that would mean that the baby wouldn't be her brother or sister as their name would be different. I was really hurt for her, as I hadn't had time to think about how we were going to deal with this when it came up. She seems to be ok now that I have explained that the baby won't have my last name, but it will still be my baby. We plan to get the girls to help with choosing the name for Peanut so that they are fully involved with the decisions. In saying this, Jasmyn asked if we could call the baby "Steve" after watching "Over the Hedge" where the hedge was named Steve! I think we will have to just give them a short list of the names we actually like to choose from!

Jo
xx