The other night, OmegaDotter was snuggling with me as I read her her bedtime book, "Cats (a First Discovery Book)". (Digression: The First Discovery series is reeellly cool, and I'm going to buy more as soon as I can.) "Cats" has one page with information about female cats having kittens, which I have used as a springboard for discussions about birth, babies in uteruses, babies in general, and--ahah!--OmegaDotter having been born to another woman, her birthmother. (For those who worry about adoptive moms drenching their children in sorrow and sadness about birthfamilies, let me reassure you that this is an on-again, off-again thing, very factual, and usually OmegaDotter is much more interested in the picture of two kittens playing on the opposite page.) So we reached that page, and the dotter, drowsy with sleep, her eyelids at half-mast, suddenly asked me, "Where's my birthmother?" "She's somewhere in China, we think." "Can we go see her?" "Well, sweetie, we don't really know where in China she is." "Oh. Where is she?" "She probably lives somewhere near Guilin, where you were in the orphanage." "Oh." And then it was time to choose which kitten we liked best.

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Last night, after the night's chosen book was read, OmegaDotter asked, "Can we talk about horsies and ponies?" "Sure. What do you want to talk about?" "Horses and ponies!" (Silly mama.) "Wellll...I've been thinking about maybe signing you up for pony camp this summer. Would you like that?" Gasp! "Oh, yes! Can I ride some of the ponies??" "Yes. You'd learn to ride them and ride different ponies and take care of them." "Oooh!" Silence for a few moments, then: "I ride SilverMoon all the time, mommy." "Yes, you do. But SilverMoon wouldn't be at the pony camp, you'd have to ride other ponies. Is that okay?" "Yes!" And then it was time for her stuffed horsie backpack, Dreamer, to ride around on top of mommy for a few minutes. Then she fell asleep.