Lauren rushes up in a chaotic shuffle, wrapping her arm tightly around my neck at the last minute to keep from falling. That sparkle flashes behind her pink frames as she fights back a belly laugh.

“Broccoli!” she snorts!

“Broccoli…?”

“Broccoli, Floyd and Mona!” she bursts!

I pause… holding her out in front of me, I take the bait. “Broccoli, Floyd and Mona…?”

“YEAH! When I grow up!  Those will be the names of my kids! Two boys and a girl!” She breaks down on the floor clutching her side in hysterics, so tight breaths are forgotten.

“Those kids won’t ever be picked on…”

Seriousness freezes her laughter as she stares at me. “Of course not. Never.”

A heartbeat later… she snorts as she crashes to the floor in giggles… “Broccoli, Floyd and Mona!”

Maggie looked up and away so she could see me clearly in her peripheral vision. She tapped her lips with a short, thin finger. “When I grow up, I’m going to have 4 kids… ” She added decidedly “two girls and two boys”.Used to her level of planning, I inquired with raised brow “and their names?”

“Rosalina and Assabella… the boys Zach and Josh. “

“Assabella… hmm… those are good names.” Curving the corners of my mouth down as I slowly nodded my head, hiding my smile.

“And their friends will be the children of my friends.”

“And their cousins will be the children of your brothers and sister… ” I added.

“Oh, Thomas isn’t going to have children. He says he will never get married and I believe him.”

She’s so confident and I hope she’s wrong. I want all my children to grow up looking back fondly at their childhood, wanting to be parents…  making me a grandfather.