Genevieve sat on the couch next to Rebecca and Callie. Callie had recently learned two things, the names for the parts of a face and that she was soon to have a little brother. She loved to show off, so she positioned herself in between her mother and Genevieve and began pointing to parts of their faces and saying what each was called.
Callie finished up the face by sticking her finger in Genevieve’s mouth and saying, “Teeth.”
Rebecca sighed and said, “Callie, we don’t put our fingers in other people’s mouths.”
“It’s okay,” Genevieve said and gave Callie a little hug.
Seeing that she’d impressed Genevieve, Callie moved on to identifying “baby” by pointing to Rebecca’s stomach.
“Yep, that’s your brother, Andrew.”
“An-ooo,” Callie repeated as best she could.
Then she turned to Genevieve as if suddenly realizing something. She pressed her finger against Genevieve’s flat stomach and announced, “Baby.”
Genevieve laughed nervously.
“No, Mommy’s having the baby, not Aunt Gen,” Rebecca said.
Could Callie be right? Genevieve wondered. Her period was two weeks off, but she had been feeling a little odd lately. It was just a perpetual feeling of fatigue and queasiness that she had chalked up to stress, but now that Callie had put the thought into her head...
“Guess you’re going to have to start teaching Callie other body parts so she doesn’t keep mistaking ‘baby’ for ‘stomach,’” Genevieve said hoping to quickly move past the baby issue.
“Well, I thought she had that down. She’s never said ‘baby’ when referring to anyone else’s stomach.” Turning to Callie and mussing her hair, Rebecca said, “A little confused, kid?”
“No,” Callie said. Then she glanced at the phone. “Daddy’s on phone.”
Upon her declaration, the phone rang.
Rebecca checked the Caller ID display. “She’s right.”
Genevieve and Rebecca looked at each other, then at Callie. All Genevieve could do was shrug, so Rebecca picked up the phone to tell her husband about their daughter’s latest development.
