No more babies Mummy!

'No more babies Mummy!' Aiden said to me recently in the shower,

'Can you don't born (give birth to) anymore babies Mummy?' Puzzled as to why he suddenly said this, I asked him and he said, 'With so many babies, they will sleep in my room, in ah-ma's place, all over the sofa and Daddy cannot sit on the sofa to watch TV and I will have to sleep with Daddy and Mummy as the babies would take up space in my room.' Interesting train of thoughts.

Credit: The Guardian

We were chatting about being the first child, middle child or youngest child of the family with my parents. I asked Aiden aloud, 'can mummy have any more babies?' 'Err... NO!' was his immediate reply.

He asked if I was the elder child or my brother and he guessed correctly that I am the elder one. He asked why isn't it the male firstborn and the female (me) second, as that is the birth order for Ava and himself and I explained that we cannot control these things. He was happy to be the firstborn as he has a competitive streak and always wants to be the first when it comes to racing to the lift, pressing the lift button and games like snakes and ladders. Good for him that he is the firstborn and he is totally pleased with it.

He was curious about who are my parents' parents and started asking, 'Who is your mummy and daddy, ah-ma?' My mum explained that her mum and dad are no longer around, that Aiden used to visit his great grandma when he was younger. He asked my dad the same thing, and my dad pointed to the altar (above the television), 'there they are!' Innocently, Aiden remarked, 'Huh? Your mummy and daddy are on tv? They look like teachers,' and this led to my mum and I rolling in laughter as Aiden said this with a straight face and started laughing as well.

When my parents shared that they both came from a big family with eight children, Aiden was really surprised and exclaimed, '8?! We have 2!' Then he asked about their birth ranking, my mum was seventh in the family and my dad was the second child (the first male), and he was very pleased to stress again that he is number one.

It was pretty interesting discovering more about how Aiden feels about having more siblings, family size and birth ranking. I am happy as well for Aiden to be older than Ava as I believe that the elder brother can protect his sister and guide her along (maybe more likely bossing her around) as they grow up. He also learns to be gentler with girls and hopefully a gentleman through interacting with Ava and me.