Jeffrey is continually under the impression that I’m pregnant.
I mean, can you blame him? During the five years of his life, I’ve been pregnant for 1 1/2 of them. That’s, like, a third of his life. That’s like me knowing someone who was continually pregnant for TEN YEARS.
He keeps saying thing like this:
“Mom, when is the baby brother in your tummy going to come out?”
Or, during prayers:
“Please bless my toys and Eleanor and my next baby brother that’s coming,”
Or, during playtime:
“I’m going for a ride in a boat. Just me, William, and my next baby brother.”
What baby brother was that?
“The one in your tummy, Mom.”
He wasn’t all that fazed when we explained that Mommy’s tummy was, alas, unoccupied. Then we gave him a hypothetical choice.
“Which would you rather have, Jeffrey,” Brian asked. “A new baby brother, or a boat?”
Oh, he answered immedately.
“A boat. A big one.”
Regarding new siblings:
My Baby Brother Has Ten Tiny Toes by Laura Leuck, illustrated by Clara Vulliamy. So many “new baby” stories choose the “jealous older sibling dislikes baby” plotline that this book is positively refreshing. Here we have Big Sister proudly boasting about all the things she loves about her baby brother, from banging spoons to backyard tea parties to the twirly ring mobile above his bed. Really, though, anybody would fall in love with a baby as depicted in Vuilliamy’s watercolors. Twinkly blue eyes! Chubby pink cheeks! Darling curly moppety hair! Mmmmm, now who’s baby hungry?*
(*Oh, so not me. Hah.)
Casa Camisas 
Oh, oh, oh…in one evening a few short weeks ago, I got to hold not one but two! itty bitty baby boys who were less than two weeks old. The cuddliness! The warm baby breath on my neck! The new-baby smell (which, despite my love of fast cars, is even better than new-car smell)! And then I had to remind myself that I really, really want to spend another year or so bonding with Sarah before I spend all my time sprawled on the couch in pregnant exhaustion.
I don’t know why they don’t make a men’s cologne in New Baby Scent. ‘Cause it seems like that would attract les femmes a whole lot more than . . . whatever it is that Brut is supposed to be.
And perhaps also: Eau de Sugar Cookie (or Old Spice Cake?)
Were the baby boys twins? Or was there simply a spate of new babies in your neighborhood?
Boat? Where did that idea come from? It sounds so random! I love it.
Jeffrey has asked me on more than one occasion about the baby in MY tummy, too, most cutely at my wedding reception. He’d probably be happy to take a boat ride with a hypothetical baby cousin.