Sprout and Butterbean

As I mentioned recently, Zeke doesn't really seem to get the idea that I'm having a baby and that there will be someone new here pretty soon. However, we can tell he is working on it over and twisting it around in that big noggin of his, even if he isn't asking much about it.

Piece of evidence #1: Zeke likes to read everything and loves to read his books, even the duds we sometimes check out from the library. But, he steadfastly refuses to read the Dr. Sears Baby on the Way book I bought a few months ago. He is familiar with this series of books and was a fan of the Dr. Sears potty training book, but we have read not even one page of this book. Too much information, I guess. Eh, I continue to leave it out and see if he takes an interest.

Piece of evidence #2: He announced to his entire preschool class yesterday that he has a baby in his tummy.

Piece of evidence #3: He has determined that the baby is saying "blurb, blurb, blurb" much like how he imagines that fish talk underwater. I didn't tell him that the baby is underwater or what things are like for the baby, but this is his intuitive understanding of it. Even though he thinks the baby is talking, he does not want to talk to the baby. I asked him if he wanted to talk to the baby this week and he honestly looked a little freaked out that I asked and shook his head.

Piece of evidence #4: He doesn't spontaneously talk about the baby, but will answer questions about the baby when asked. When the baby is born, he is going to sing it "Hush Little Baby" from the book Zeke has. The baby needs a teddy bear like he has a teddy bear. (I think Zeke might have picked out one of his bears to give to the baby. One of his bears is now named "Baby Bear" and his bear is "Zeke Bear" and the one that he makes me carry around sometimes is "Mama Bear." Thus, I think Baby Bear must be intended for its namesake.) Zeke now only wants a baby brother, though he very early on voted for having a sister. Many of his friends have baby brothers, so I think he just wants the same. He wants the baby to named something that sounds like some combination of "owls" and "olives." It sounds like "awl-yuz" though according to Zeke this is spelled "T-O-Y-S-R-U-S."

He does seem to be warming up to the idea of someone else being in our lives, though, and that warms my heart. Sometimes he asks for me to sit next to him in the car, even when I am driving. Last week after I told him I was driving and couldn't sit in the back seat, he asked me to move his seat into the front passenger seat so that he could sit next to me. I told him that children have to sit the back seat and that when the baby comes that he or she will also have to sit in the backseat in a car seat. Zeke pointed and asked, "The baby will sit there?" That really took hold because he was very excited about that and even told Aaron that night the news that he would be sharing the backseat with the baby. Today after loading him up in the race car shopping cart at Home Depot, he told me that the baby would sit next to him in the cart soon. Let's hope he feels so warmly about sharing everything else in his life, too.