Her name starts with an 'S'

We have this silly thing, our invisible future baby that we keep discussing. It started off with daddy, his wish list for our future includes a girl seeing that there are 2 boys already in the picture. A little girl that will be ours. She will be perfect, beautiful, most wanted... and her name will be Scarlet.

Yesterday I found a mug at the local store, Pantone colours with their names on the front. What did I find? Scarlet - in bright red. I take a pic and send to daddy, a little joke between us, and we giggle through secretive messages, both smiling like Cheshire cats on the other side of the city. Right now, we’re at the point of certainty, engagement talk and future car purchases with little Scarlet in consideration. It's like she already exists.

We know we’ll be together forever, this is it, I’m the one for him and he’s the one for me and Scarlet will make our family of 4, a family of 5. A part of him and a part of myself,  but the time isn’t now so until she arrives, we talk about her as if she’s going to manifest herself one day. We'll greet her when she takes her first breath, as if she's lived with us for years before her conception. It’s a fun game, a romantic one, and will be even funnier if Scarlet turns out to be Steven.

This evening, while standing at the kitchen counter, chopping carrots for dinner, little arms wrap around my waist. A big sigh resonating from behind me, followed by, “Love you”. The youngest coos sweetly and my face softens with a smile.

“Please can we have a baby?”, he asks.  “A baby?”, I calmly reply. "Maybe we should ask daddy first?", I reply, almost choking on the piece carrot between my teeth.

“Really?”, he retorts excitedly.

“Yes indeed, go ask your dad”, at this stage I'm holding back an outburst of laughter that has welled up from my belly and has stopped just before the back of my throat.  

Dad stands at the table doing homework with the eldest. 

“Daddy”, says the youngest, “can aunty X please have a baby?”

“Sure boys, would you like a little brother or sister”, he asks. The kitchen and dining table echo with the very certain response, “A little sister daddy!”

A little sister it is, a little sister it may just be.