Doodles: Are Uncle Jon and Alicia having a baby yet?
Me: Not yet. They only just got married a couple of weeks ago. Even if they had a baby right away, it would still take nine months, remember?
Doodles: Do you have to be married to have a baby?
Me: No, you don’t. But being married first is the traditional way of doing things. Not everyone is married to have a baby, and you don’t have to be married to have a baby, but if you follow the tradition, you’ll get married first.
Pie: Were you married when you had a baby?
Me: Yes, I was.
Pie: Why?
Me: You know, having a baby is really hard work. It helps a lot if you have a partner when you have your baby, to help take care of it.
Doodles: Yeah, having a baby is really hard work. But it’s also fun.
Me: That’s true. And I wanted Daddy as a partner in taking care of a baby.
Doodles: Hey, Pie, you know what?
Pie: What?
Doodles: When I was born, Mommy had a partner. But when you were born, Mommy had two partners!
Me: I did?!?
Doodles: Yes! When Pie was born, Mommy had Daddy and me as a partner. It was hard work taking care of you Pie, but I really helped a lot. I gave you bottles of milk. So many bottles of milk. Pie, you drank a lot of milk from bottles [I’d like to remind everyone here that Pie was never what you’d call a bottle drinker. She actually despised the bottle]. Mommy was lucky she had so much help.
Well, I guess that depends on your definition of help. If by help you mean being a screaming, whining, dawdling, getting in the way pain in the tush two-year-old, yep, Doodles, you were a huge help! Thanks for that.
nice- he creates memories of his childhood like I do
I guess he is starting his memoirs early.:) Yanna also likes to extrapolate on whatever Max is doing: “And I played with that car when I was little, and you fed me with that spoon, when I was little, and I wore this sweater when I was a little baby”. And eight times out of ten she is right. And yes, I still remember the nightmare of the first few months of Max’ life, when Yanna seemed to be always clinging and whining and always somewhere, where I could trip on her. Phew, I don’t miss those times.