Poignant moments

"Mommy, when I'm a grown woman, will you still be my mommy?"
"Yes, Rachel!" I answered, touched.
"When I get new children, will you always still be my mommy?"
"Of course, Rachel!" I said, hugging her. "I will always be your mommy!"

***

The other night I was telling Rachel, after she asked, "what's your real name?" which she has asked before, that people have several names (and several identities). Her name is Rachel Drury DeSilver, for instance. And Mommy is a sister to Tia Daniella, whose name is Daniella Lednicer. Who is married to Darryl Chu. And their daughter is Valerie, whose last name is Valerie Chu. Isn't that cool?

Upon hearing Valerie's name, Rachel immediately yelled, "Duckie!"

"Yes, Rachel," I said.

"Is that her real name?" she asked.

"No, it's a nickname," I answered.

"Can we have a playdate?" she asked, a little forlornly.

I hugged her and said we'd definitely see Valerie and the rest of the family next year.

***

"That's my other house!" Rachel said excitedly after we passed a drab set of olive green apartments. She claims she lives there with Peya, her husband, Nevaeh, her other mommy (Nevaeh is "heaven" spelled backwards, a disturbing trend in girls' names) and the babies -- Bob, Delly and Abby Cadaddy.

Apparently there is a new addition to the family -- baby Zoey. We got into a discussion that those are lot of babies. She observed that when she has babies, "Mommy and Daddy will be Grandma and Grandpa!"

"And we'll help you take care of the babies," I said.

"You can take care of them," she said. "I don't want to do all the work!"

So tonight she said she wants two children -- then thought about it and added, maybe three -- and she again said she didn't want to do all the work. Her solution was to give me one of them.

"Babies are a lot of work," I said. "You can't just give them to me. Hopefully you'll have a husband or wife who will help you."

"But you had a husband to help you," she noted. True enough, and secretly I think it would be wonderful to help care for a little baby that I didn't have to lose sleep over. But by the time she gets pregnant I'll probably be so old that all I'll get to do is to cuddle her child. Drew can take care of the swaddling since he always did it better than me anyway.