A conversation

Below is a conversation we had with Edith a few weeks ago. The weather had been glorious for a week, the first full burst of spring, and Edith had been in a wonderful mood for several days straight. So at an al fresco dinner that evening it seemed like a good time to have the following exchange.

T: Edith, Mommy has some good news to tell you. Can you guess?

E [pausing in her tickling and giggling to think]: Ice cream!

T: Yes, ice cream is good news. And we're going to have that after dinner. But this is even better news. Can you guess?

E [pausing to think again]: Jesus is alive!

***

It's hard to improve on that, and it's certainly where our local seminarian friends have said they'll end the vignette when incorporating it into their sermons. But in fact, the conversation continued:

T: Yes, Jesus is alive, and that's certainly good news. But this is a little different. Mommy has something in her belly.

E [beaming]: Belly button!

T: Yes, it's good news that Mommy has a belly button. But she has something else.

E: Stomach!

T: Yes, she has a stomach. But what else do you think she has?

Considering all her requests on this score in the last six months, Edith is surprisingly stumped. Finally:

T: She has a baby in her belly. And it's going to grow for awhile and then come out and be your baby brother or sister.

E, [pause]: I'm going to check.

Edith climbs down from her bench, lifts my shirt, and looks into my belly button.

E: What do you have in there?

G: A teeny, tiny baby. It needs to grow for a lot longer before it comes out.

E: I don't see it.

G: No, you can't see it. It's on the inside. But around Thanksgiving it will come out.

E: What do you have in there?

G: A teeny, tiny little thing that is going to grow into a baby and come out.

E: And when it's ready, it will just come out through there [pointing to my belly button].

T: Well not exactly, but when it's ready it will come out.

E: Yeah, it will grow into a baby and then it will just...pop out!

T: That's right.

E: And when there's dirt around the house, I will teach it how to sweep.

T [after we stop laughing]: Yes, you can teach it how to sweep. What else can you teach it?

E: Mopping.

Then Edith got up and started her excited, happy dance, singing, "Baby! Baby!"

Then she told Tom, "You and I get up and we dance." So Tom got up and did the happy baby dance with her.

And then it was time for ice cream.