...And then there's Toby's opinion

Toby is growing increasingly interested in “my belly” and the baby that is hiding in it. He often comes up to me and innocently tears my shirt out of my pants so he can have a look for the baby. It’s not the GREATEST thing to have your increasingly flabby belly flaunted to the world at a moments notice, but it’s nice to see he’s interested. It is certainly much better than his initial reaction when we first told him he was going to be a big brother.

I believe he was eating cheerios at the time. He stopped chewing for a second and stared at me. Intently. Then took another mouthful. I rephrased what I had said and added something nice about how he’s going to get to be a big brother. Another mouthful of cheerios. This time the stare was more of a glare, but still no verbal clues as to his understanding.

Finally I asked him a question, “Toby don’t you think it’s great that Mommy is having another baby?”

“Nope!” he replied, spewing cheerios as he spat the words out, “I just like baby Toby.”

His other fascination (other than my belly) is my stethoscope. He likes to come over and listen to my heart and lungs and tell me whether or not I need medicine. (He is KIND OF the expert on respiratory illnesses, having survived a fairly significant one himself.)

Tonight he got the clever idea of listening to my BELLY with the stethoscope. Finding this rather endearing, I asked him if he was listening for the baby,

“Yes!” he said excitedly.

“What’s the baby saying, Toby?”

He thought and listened for a minute and then very sweetly in a tiny voice said,

“Meeeooow!!”

No wonder he’s excited. He thinks I’m having a cat.