Long-Range Planning

Photo by Cassidy James Blaede on Unsplash.

As Monkey was finishing up his English assignment this morning, he blurted out (in typical Monkey fashion), “When I am an adult, I will have a baby.”

My first thought was, Yay! Grandkids for me!

But I just said, “Okay. Are you excited about having babies with your wife?”

I wanted to make sure that he was aware that this would not be a solo effort.

“Yeah, girl humans, they make the babies.” (Um, having trouble thinking of the word women, I guess.)

“Yes, God designed women to carry the babies,” I clarified.

“In their tummies?”

“No, not really.” I indicated my abdomen. “We sometimes say that women have the baby in their tummies, but they are really in a special organ God gave women called a uterus. It just looks like their tummy because it is in the same area.”

“Oooh,” he said, wide-eyed.

“If it was really their tummy, then all the food would have to pass by the baby when the mommy ate, and that wouldn't work very well.”

“Yeah, the mommy wouldn't be able to eat!”

“And since she has to eat enough good food for herself and her baby, that is why the baby is in a separate, special place.”

“When I have a baby, it will be Sonic!” (As in, "the Hedgehog".) My spontaneous outburst of laughter must have made him realize that this was somewhat out of the realm of possibility, because he immediately countered with, “No, no! When I have a baby...” and trailed off into thought for a moment.

“Well, your only real options that you know in advance are 'boy' or 'girl',” I prompted, waiting in delighted anticipation to see where his train of thought would go next.

He did not disappoint. (Why is my seven-year-old naming his future children already?!)

“When I have a girl, I'm going to call her...”—pause to think some more—“Eve!”

“That's a good name.” I smiled.

“And a boy will be Jonah!” He really seemed to be getting into this.

“Oh... Eve and Jonah sound good,” I replied.

“And a girl will be Beauty!” he said.

That one sounded like it was leaning towards the hippie, but it was about to get better.

“You're going to have two girls and a boy, then?” I asked, but he was now on too much of a roll to be distracted with mere questions.

“And a boy will be... Huggy!”

Well, (ahem) let's hope his wife helps him with the name for that last one.