James Would Like Another Baby for His Birthday

After Will’s birthday comes James’s, so at dinner last night, we asked him the obvious question:

“What do you want for your birthday?”

We were expecting something normal. A toy. A truck. Maybe a dinosaur. Something we could order from Amazon and have sitting on the porch 36 hours later.

James thought about it.

Then he said:

The entire table froze.

Dylan and Will’s eyes went wide. Both of them immediately started making frantic gestures at James—the universal older-brother signal for STOP TALKING. DO NOT GIVE THEM IDEAS.

It was as though James had casually suggested that we acquire a seventh puppy or move into a school bus.

To be clear: there are no more babies coming.

We are done. Completely, definitively, six-kids-is-plenty done.

And considering that our youngest is still very much a baby, James’s request is especially funny. Apparently Lily is already old news. He would like a fresh one.

There was something incredibly sweet about it, though.

Of all the things a three-year-old could ask for, James looked around our very full dinner table and decided what our family really needed was one more person.

The rest of us may have reacted with varying degrees of horror, but James was perfectly sincere.

He loves having babies around. He loves being part of this giant, noisy little crew. And apparently, in his mind, birthdays are an opportunity to add to it.

Sorry, buddy.

We’ll get you a dinosaur.