A Baby Sister

Alison really really wants a baby sister. She tells me almost every day at some point. Last month we visited my cousin and her new baby. At the end of the visit she asked Mari if she could take her baby sistur home. http://mariandjimburgess.blogspot.com/2008/09/passed-around.html
Today she was looking at the clothes that she's outgrown and said she would keep them for her baby sister. And, she's going to "take cawre of my baby sistur. And sing songs to my baby sistur. And feed my baby sistur stawrs. And hewlp my baby sistur go to swleep."

Crazy Mother: Alison do you have a baby sister right now.
Alison: No. But tomorrow I will have a baby sistur.

I have to explain that according to Alison and Stuart everything present is today, everything in the future is tomorrow, and everything in the past is yesterday. Alison's concept of the future is dictated by the calander that hangs in the kitchen. We draw pictures to represent events that are coming up and I move a turtle each evening to the next day. The twins come up and look up at the calander each morning to assess their day. Alison usually asks, "Mom, whats we doing today?" if there isn't some sort of picture drawn in the little square. If it isn't on the calendar, it isn't going to happen. In their minds, the entire future is right there---its only 5 weeks.

I've been deflecting baby sistur questions for a long time now by saying, "Maybe one day we'll have a baby sister." I took the following picture after Alison came up one morning and looked very carefully at the calander. She then put her hands on her hips, put her chin up to look at me in the eyes, and said, "Mommy. There is NO baby sistur on the calander," angry that I had been tricking her all this time. There isn't a baby drawn on my board (in the next 5 weeks) and if it isn't there, it won't happen--EVER. You are just pacifying me. Mean.


Today, I thought that it was probably a good idea to introduce her to the idea that baby sisters take a long to acquire (especially when your parents aren't trying for a baby). Thinking that I would introduce her to the idea of babies being grown in bellies for 9 months, I asked the following question.

Crazy Mother: Alison, do you know where baby sisters come from?
Alison: (a wee bit exasperated) Yes. Mommy, they come from Jesus.

I didn't have the heart to continue the conversation about how babies take a long LONG time to bake and they are a lot of work and they cry in the middle of the night and throw things in toilets and break dishes and cry in the middle of the night and require mushy food and that Mommy and Daddy are completely freaked out about having another one. She reminded me that babies are such miraculous blessings.