How To Make A Baby

Eva was sitting on Jeff's lap while Xander was racing around the soccer field when she suddenly looked up at Jeff and asked, "How do you make a baby?" For a fraction of a second, I could see Jeff's eyes grow large and the frame of his body pull away. Remembering it was a four year old asking and not a teenager, he relaxed and shrugged it off.


"Daddy, do you know how to make a baby?" She wasn't going to let him off the hook.


"I do," he said. Then using one of the better tricks of parenting, he turned the question back to her. "Do you know how to make a baby?"


"Yep. You take a little bit of girl stuff," she responded while reaching into thin air with her left hand, "and a little bit of boy stuff." I watched as her right hand extended into the air so her hand could grasp the imagined boy stuff. "And then you put them together like this." She clapped her hands together as if she were molding playdoh or shaping cookie dough. "Then, you put them in a bowl and mix them up and you have a baby." She had quickly mimed stirring the ingredients in a bowl before putting her hands out to present the invisible child she had just whipped up.


Jeff had pulled back. A smile was on his lips and a sparkle in his eye. He was honestly astonished at how much she seemed to know, even if it wasn't exactly accurate. He prompted her to tell him again and she happily obliged, including keeping with the physical demonstration. "That's right," he said before he lifted his eyes to the on-going game.


"Daddy," Eva called again. He looked down at her inquiring what she wanted. "Do you want to make a baby with me tonight?" she asked.


Hugging her to him quickly so she couldn't see his composure slip, he assured her heartily that he truly did not. I could see her shoulders slump. Jeff! You could of at least said you would make baby pancakes or cookies with her! She's only 4 and her mind doesn't go where yours did!