"Baby Day Baby"

I was cleaning the kitchen this evening when I noticed that the kids, who were playing in the basement, were awfully quiet, so I went down to check on them. I saw no mess, nothing suspicious, so I asked what they were doing. Maddie tells me, "Playing Baby Day Baby."

I know that "Baby Day" in their language means the day a baby is born, so now I'm REALLY curious. I ask her, "How do you play that?"

She says:

"First you pretend there's a baby in your tummy." At this, both she and Emily push their tummies out. Emily says "Lauren's in my tummy!" Maddie rubs her tummy and sits in the rocking chair, rocking, rocking and rubbing her tummy.

"Then you sit down on this chair." She sits on the birth stool, her legs spread wide over the edges of the seat.

"Then you reach down and pull the baby up to you." Pantomiming, gently cradling the air-baby, as she lifts it to her chest. Catching her baby completely without assistance.

"Then you walk over here to rest." She walks over to my bed, waddling, careful of a cord that isn't there. Yet somehow I can see it all the same. Maddie climbs into the very spot where I rested with my brand new "baby day baby" Lauren in the minutes after she was born. I think I'm going to cry. Maddie is all cuddled up now, propped in pillows, wrapped in blankets, cooing over her brand new baby. I feel like I'm glimpsing into her future.