September 6, 2007 by Barbara.

Last night, Amanda was telling us about a family she knows in which the mother is taking the two kids and going to see her family in China for 2 months and then the kids (a toddler and a baby) will be staying for a full year. I can’t imagine being separated from Reid from a week (though I’m getting closer to being apart for a weekend) let alone a year. Somehow, Ken got to the possibility of a kid moving into the basement.

Reid’s ears almost visibly perked up. Sleep! In the basement! What an idea! Reid was going to sleep in the basement that very night. I told her that the basement was too messy to sleep in - and, by the way, we needed to remedy that before Aunt Pam and Grandma Joyce came to visit. (I smile in anticipation of the visit, if not the cleaning.) Reid stuck with wanting to sleep in the basement that night. I offered that she could sleep in the basement once my family arrived. Reid looked surprised and said, “I am your family.” Ken laughed and said, “She’s only 3 and she gets it,” and he mumbled something about me not being separate from my family of birth yet. When Ken and Amanda were done laughing, I tried arguing that I’d be lonely if she slept in the basement. At first, Reid argued that she would still be close and then she told me that I could sleep next to her on the floor. Being the problem-solving sort, she’d dealt with my concern that the basement was too messy by deciding to sleep on the floor and my loneliness by including me in the plan. Resourceful girl, that Reid.

Finally, Ken said that basement sleeping wasn’t going to happen with some variation of “because I said so” and Reid let the issue drop.

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September 6, 2007 by Barbara.

At breakfast yesterday, Reid was talking about what would happen when she is the mama and I am the baby. She will carry me around when I am tiny, until I grow up. In fact, she will carry me for the 7 days that it takes me to grow up. Ken laughed and said that growing up wasn’t that fast but Reid is sure that 7 days would be enough.

At bedtime, Reid was talking about breastmilk and how daddies don’t have it. I said that mamas have it after they have babies in their bellies because babies need it to grow bigger. I told her that when she stopped drinking my milk that it would go away. She seemed puzzled for a minute and then asked is her breasts would have milk then. I told her that girls don’t have milk until their big ladies who have had babies and, when asked, agreed that boys never have milk.

On the way to daycare this morning, Reid asked to listen to a Kindermusik cd. As I put one in, I reminded her that in just 9 days she would be starting her new Kindermusik class. She remembered that it was just for children. I said something about M. being in her class; M. has been in her class for two years. They’re growing up together, those two. And Reid, in her increasingly-familiar “little voice”, told me that she didn’t want to be grown up. I told her that she wasn’t grown up but *growing* each day.

We seem to be spending lots of time talking about growing up lately. It’s hard to know when to celebrate Reid getting big and being independent and when she’ll feel pressured by the suggestion. This whole parenting thing doesn’t get easier, does it? Just when I learn how to handle one situation, there’s a new one that crops up. ;+)

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