Pro-Life Preschoolers: Five Things the Kids Do and Say about Baby

This morning, when Nina was finishing her Breakfast 1 – sliced apples – she handed me her bowl of skins, saying,  “Here, Mama.” I told her I didn’t want her leftovers at the moment, but would eat the skins later. She replied, “But, Mama, the baby wants them!” (She often tells me to eat things for the baby in my belly.) Then, she proceeded to sing Happy Birthday to the baby. It made me smile.

Since the day I found out I was pregnant with Number 3 and shared the news with the kids, they have been full of excitement, questions and funny little things that they do and say.

The first five that come to mind are:

1. The Baby Won’t Come Out

Luke: Mommy, you can’t go to the potty.
Mommy: Why, Luke?
Luke: The baby will come out.
Mommy (realizing that Luke reasons that since food that goes into your belly eventually goes out the other way, he thinks that the baby in my belly might come out that way, too.): No, Luke. It’s okay. The baby won’t come out when I got potty. God will keep the baby in.

2. Kisses for the Angel in the Waters

One of the kids’ Christmas books was the wonderful little pro-life kids’ book, Angel in the Waters. One of the first times we read it, Nina spontaneously leaned over and kissed the baby pictured in the book. Since then, whenever we read it, she doesn’t allow me to turn a page until she has given the baby in the book kisses. Then, at the end of the story, insists on blowing kisses to our baby in my belly.

3. How the Baby Get Inside Mama

Luke: Mommy, I know you and Nina have eggs, but how did God put the baby in the eggs. (Horrors to some, I know. But, our kids knows about the eggs because one day they overheard me remarking to Mike how incredulous I found it that Nina was born with all her eggs already inside her.)
Mommy: Well, Luke, when God knows a man and a woman love each other and thinks they are ready, he lets the baby grow, kind of like when we plant seeds and sun, rain and good soil are there.  They seeds grow.
Luke (after a pause for thought): No, Mommy. That’s not how He did it.
(Mommy holds her breath wondering just what Luke knows.)
Luke: He did it when you were sleeping. He opened your mouth and put the baby in.
(Mommy sighs with relief that, at four, Luke does not know everything about the birds and the bees yet!)
Luke: Now, open your mouth.
Mommy: Why?
Luke: Because I want to blow baby a kiss.

4. Happy Birthday to Baby

The other day, when we were driving in the car, Luke and Nina were chatting. Out of nowhere, it seemed, they started talking about the baby and decided that they are going to have a cake the day the baby is born so we can celebrate his or her birthday, just like their own and Jesus’. Then, they broke into rounds of the Happy Birthday song. It was so incredibly cute.

Now, I just have to remember to add “cake” to my hospital overnight bag list so they won’t be disappointed.

5. Everyone Has Likes

The kids like to talk about what the new baby might be like and what he or she will enjoy.  Today, they said:
Luke: I want a boy. If it’s a boy, I will like it... The baby will like dinosaurs, moose, unicorns and Puff... All the things I like, Mommy.

Mommy: I want a girl... I want the baby to like Lukie and Nina... I love baby...


Conversations and moments like these make me laugh and smile. They also make me feel blessed. I am so glad that even at their tender – and sometimes self-centered – ages, Luke and Nina already show a love for new life.  No child – even one in a belly – is too young to understand love. To receive physical and spiritual hugs, kisses and words of affirmation and encouragement. To get the message: “You are valued. You are special child who is dearly loved.” I am grateful that all three of my children enjoy such experiences.

God gifts us life.  May we all appreciate it.