Riley's our first (as you know) so maybe all children ask these kind of questions or tell these kind of stories. But lately Riley's had a lot of questions about babies. Like where was Reegan before she was in my belly. I know kids want to know how babies are made and how did they get into the belly. But Riley....well, she wants to know how they get out of the belly? I told her they kind of swim out (I mean how am I SUPPOSED to answer this to a 4 year old). To which she responded "That can't be right because newborns can't really use their hands and arms." Uh? Then she asked me if it hurt. After taking a moment to think about it, I told her "Yes. Yes, it does hurt." I think it's never too early to start preventing teenage pregnancy.
Lately Riley has been pretending to HAVE a baby. I am not talking just baby under her shirt pretending to be pregnant, but I mean the whole shindig. So tonight she wanted to know if I had one or two pillows when I was having a baby and was Daddy on the bed. Really? I promise you we do not let her watch anything more serious than Mickey Mouse and Barbie on tv. She wants to make sure she has the details down...did I have square or rectangle pillows? If I had two, were they side by side or one on top of the other. I am not sure why these details are so important but I guess she wants to get the reenactment just right. Of course, I'm not sure she has the attention span to play it out for the full 35 hours and 40 minutes I was in labor with her but I say "hey, give it a shot."
Bokinis. Riley is full fledged girl. And truth be told, I mostly love it. That she knows what she wants and is not a total copycat of me. She has been asking for a bikini. A lot. It's not that I am against bikinis in general but we do live in the sun capital of the world...and oh, she's only 4. Anyway, she doesn't just want a bikini for her but she wants me to wear "bokinis" (as she calls them.). I do have a couple of 'bokinis' laying around from the good ole' days and for those days I want to pretend I still have abs (under the same belly Riley asked if I had a baby in it today :). Anyway, one day Riley and I were going swimming and she asked me to wear a bokini. I told her I really wasn't comfortable in one. To which she responded "Don't worry Mom, I am not comfortable in my swimsuit either. This tag keeps itching me." So the next day when we were going swimming I was in the bathroom changing and Riley pounds on the door "Are you wearing a bokini?" I open the door to show her that I was in fact wearing one. She was so disappointed "Not that one mom" (it was a plain brown one). I suspect that's only the beginning to a lifetime of fashion disappointments I give to Riley.
p.s. on a side note, the really cute nudist who lives upstairs stopped being so cute a few days after last week's blog post and we have had to resort to duct tape if we don't want to have to change her sheets 1-2 times per night. It was the only way to stop her.
