he's not going to love this story one day

Months ago, after I tucked Michael into bed one night he told me, "When I grow up, I'm going to get married in the temple and have babies."

"Yes," I replied, "I think that's a good idea."

"I think I'll marry you, Mom," he said, and smiled his most charming smile. it made me sad, for moment, all that beautiful transient love, but I smiled, too.

"You can't marry me!" I exclaimed. "I'm already married to Daddy. You'll have to marry someone else."

"Oh," he said. He thought very seriously for a moment. "Maybe I'll marry Ivy," he suggested.

"No, that won't work either. Ivy is your sister. You can't marry your sister."

He looked at me. "Abby?" he tried. "Maddie?"

"No, sorry. They're already part of your family. You marry someone who's not part of your family and you start a new family. Then you get to have two families." I thought for a moment and added, "Three, if you have good in-laws."

He brushed past that. "Then WHO am I going to marry, Mom?" he asked in exasperation.

"Well...I guess you could marry Katelyn, or Maddie from sunbeams, or Mia, or Mara--she likes you. But probably you'll marry someone you don't even know yet, someone you won't meet for a long time."

He thought about that for a minute, then nodded and sighed.

"I guess I'll marry Mara," he said.

and that was the end of that.


kind of.

Because I did what I think many people would do in this situation: I told Mara's mom about the conversation the next time I saw her.


And she told Mara about the conversation.


And Mara was delighted.


Yesterday, Mara came to play at our house for the first time in months. She was a little shy at first, but soon they were running around like usual. They ran upstairs and I could hear them jumping off the beds and laughing. A little while later, Mara came creeping down to find me.


"Hi, Mara," I said. "What are you guys doing upstairs?"


She smiled, a secretive, excited smile. "We were getting married," she told me.


"Oh, really?" I replied.

"Not really married, just pretend married," she said. "And then we twirled around and around until we were dizzy and fell down." She laughed and demonstrated the falling down, laying on the floor in ecstasy, an enormous grin on her face. "It was so wonderful."


Oh, the effect this boy has on us ladies.