A child's request

While driving in the car last night, Matthew (my boyfriend's 4-year old son) asked me, "Jenni, when are you gonna have kids?" What does one say to something like that? I asked him why he wanted to know and if he wanted a little brother or sister. He simply replied, "yes."

This isn't the first time he's brought up the subject. In fact, it has come up several times before and each time he has been the initiator. For example, a couple of weeks ago I was home alone with Matthew waiting for his father to return. He climed up in my lap, looked me in the face and asked, "Do you have any kids?" Not wanting to discount his role in my life but usure of how to answer (after all, he knows that I am not his mother), I simply stated, "No, not yet." Without hesitation, he replied, "What about me?"

Even farther back than that incident, before we purchased our home, I was sitting with Matthew in the living room of our old apartment when he broached the subject with me for the first time. A diaper commerical came on the TV that showed a baby roaming all around his house and eventually playing with some toys. At that time Matthew said to me, "Maybe someday we can have a house like that and we can have a baby too."

It seems that I need to get on the ball. Somebody wants a playmate!