telling Casper

[flea]

We just had a nearly 1-hour fire drill at work (there was an actual fire! in the server room! fire trucks came!) and as you can imagine I have very little desire to continue with the work day. Happily it was a sunny 80 degrees; I hope I don't have a sunburn.

We went out for dinner last night and had The Talk with Casper about the Armadillo. It went like this:

me and mr. flea: "So in the summer, when you'll be almost 3 years old, there will be a new baby in our family. It's growing in mommy's tummy just like you grew in mommy's tummy before you were born. You're going to be the big sister, and there will be a little brother."

Casper: Beat. "Look at my shoe!"

So, it's hard to gather what's going on in her murky little head. We did go on to have a silly conversation about what the baby's name should be (Arthur? Clifford? Max? Ord? - note for the non-PBS Kids addicts - all male characters on "our shows").

Comments

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

My cousin is still a little put out that when my aunt asked Amy Sue's then-7yo brother what her name should be, he picked that one out of thin air, or so it seems....

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

My father was named Toby by his then 6 and 4 year old siblings, after a dog in a book they liked. I think he still resents it.

[susanw.livejournal.com]

One of Annabel's favorite kid shows is Jack's Big Music Show. I hate trying to edit The Sergeant's Lady while she's watching it, because having manly rifle-toting hero Jack occupy the same headspace as cute kiddie puppet Jack is so jarring.

I can just about guarantee I'll never have a hero (or a baby!) named Elmo or Clifford, but I named a character I'd like to write about someday Arthur long before I was savvy to kid TV.

[cashmerepett.livejournal.com]

I don't think she'll understand the ramifications to her until she sees you nursing the new baby.

I'm glad Owen wasn't old enough to vote on the name, since he's now fascinated with saying "Oobi"--who is a Noggin character.

[burrell.livejournal.com]

We got a couple of books for Franny to learn about the baby. The run away favorite is I'm a Big Sister. And we did the thing of telling her about the new baby and about how lucky he was going to be to have a big sister like her. Lucky for us, she has uber maternal instincts, so that worked like gangbusters.

I am confident that you will find the right way to introduce her to the new baby.