Jane's post yesterday at Emptying the Nest reminded me of a funny story that I like to tell about my daughters when they were younger. A story that demonstrates the very personality differences that make each of them unique. . .
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Years ago, my husband and I were invited to a wedding in Massachusetts, and even though our daughters weren't old enough to be included in the festivities, we took them along with us and arranged for a babysitter to stay with them at my Mother-in-Law's house.
Now the only thing sort of interesting about this particular wedding was that the bride and groom didn't follow the tree song. You know. . .
Johnny and Susie sitting in a tree,
K-I-S-S-I-N-G!
First comes love, then comes marriage,
then comes Junior in the baby carriage. . .
Well, anyway, somebody must have taught them the song a little backwards because "Junior" arrived before the "marriage" part and so they put the 8-month-old in a tuxedo and called it a day. But, because my daughters weren't attending the ceremony or reception, I didn't find it necessary to teach them the revised song. Why would you want to confuse their young unadulterated minds with a re-made version of the song, when we all know that those dance mixes are never as good as the original???
But I forgot to take one thing into account.
We were invited to a family brunch the next morning and the whole fam-damily was there - including the baby.
Now, there were a lot of people in that house, and we don't get a chance to see my husband's family very often, so I thought that maybe they would assume that the baby was some sore of distant relation or something.
No luck.
Now Daughter Number 1 (a.k.a. Veggie) had already learned about the whole situation from her older cousins, and so she stayed clear of the subject . . . smiling in the knowledge that she so sophisticatedly owned.
Daughter Number 2 (a.k.a. Trigger) was off in her own world - enthralled with the family's pet guinea pig.
Daughter Number 3 (a.k.a. Ponzi) wasn't in that house for thirty seconds before she began tugging on my sweater. . .
Ponzi: Who's that baby over there?
Me: Are you talking about your cousin Brandy? She's not such a baby anymore, you know.
Ponzi: No, Brandy's right over there. . . I'm talking about that baby!
Me: Oh! That baby!
Ponzi: Yeah. Whose baby is it?
Me: That baby belongs to Johnny and Susie.
Ponzi: Oh. . .
Not two minutes later, she came back and began to tug on my sweater again - just as I began speaking with the mother of the groom. . .
Ponzi: Weren't they the ones who got married yesterday? How'd that happen????
Me: (whispering) I'll tell you later when we get home, Sweetheart.
After a four-hour car back to Jersey, Ponzi promptly asks,
Ponzi: Where'd that baby come from?????
And so I attempted to explain about how people sometime get a little confused about the words to the song and how - every once in a while - the baby comes first . . . . ya, da, ya, da, ya, da. . . . when I noticed that Trigger seemed very perplexed.
Me: Do you have a question, Trigger?
Trigger: There was a baby in that house???? I thought it was a guinea pig!!!
(Alright, she didn't say I thought it was a guinea pig! but it would have been funny!)
