Engagement

or quite awhile, Moolah has been planning for her future.  

Version 1.0:  Moolah lives in our house. She is the Mama and Ace is the Daddy. They change their names to "Mama" and "Daddy" and have a Big Sister Moolah and Little Brother Ace.   (When questioned, she is unsure where real Mama and Daddy will be). 

Version 1.1:  Same as above, except she and Ace keep their names and have Big Sister "Mama" and Little Brother "Daddy".

Version 1.2:  Same as above, except that they have Big Sister "Cousin Posey" and Little Brother "Daddy". (Hmmm, Mama is the first to go from the scenario, and Moolah is still unsure where Mama and Daddy will be living). 

Version 1.3: Same as above with Moolah, Ace, Sister "Posey" and Brother "Daddy", but they live in either the Sunny State or China.  Mama and Daddy can still live in the house. 

Sometime in the last few weeks, she asked me questions about this plan in a way that made me answer "Well, you probably won't marry Ace."

"Who will I marry?" (alarmed). 

"Well, I don't know.  Girls don't marry their brothers.  They marry someone who is nice to them and makes them laugh."  

"Well. Dima is nice to me.  Maybe I'll marry him."  From there the conversation took a turn toward realization that she had not seen Zoey or Dima in a long, long time and she missed them terribly.  So, pretty soon, a playdate with both was scheduled for Dima's house at Moolah's request.

Then, last week, I picked her up from Daytime Mama and asked "how was your day?"

"I'm going to marry Sam."

"Really?  Tell me about that." 

"Well, I asked him and he said no but then he said (imitating nonchalance) 'okay'." 

"When did you ask him?"  

"Well, he was showing me a dinosaur and I said 'Do you want to marry me?' and he said no but then I asked again and he said 'okay'."  

"Then what happened." 

"We started being silly and Teacher Jessie told us to put the conversation rug away."