How about another baby?

Now that Ladder is no longer chewing on any of his baby toys, it's time to shuffle the furniture to make room for more of the grown-up toys.  From the cold unloved corner of the rumpus, up comes the Duplo, the castle, the Thomas tracks, tents, pretend food...

I packed up some of Ladder's baby toys into a plastic bag for donation. When EggEgg spotted those, he asked, "Why are they in a bag?"

"Ladder doesn't play with them any more, so I'm giving it away to church."
In reality, I am rather glad to be rid of this plastic stuff that has been hanging around the house since 7 years ago.

"But you can save it for the next baby!"  EggEgg suggested, as if it's a brilliant idea.

*Sigh* Where do I begin?

"You see, there are problems with having another baby.  Our health: Mami and Daddy are getting old, we can't have more babies, otherwise we'll be very old before you are all grown up."

(Technically it is possible, but I still clearly remembered my resolution to the midwife during Ladder's birth, "This has to be the last one. I can't imagine myself pushing out a baby at 40 years old!"  Why push the luck when you've beaten all the odds so far?  We've worried through the whole lot of pregnancies about Down syndrome and diabetes risks.)

"Then, there is a problem with money. With every child, you need to spend more money on this and that. Where do we get the extra money?  My grandmother has 11 kids, by the end of it, she was so poor she has to give away her last baby to her neighbour."  
"Really?"
"Yeah. Cos the neighbours couldn't have their own kid due to health problems."

"Finally, there is the problem with time.  If I have too many kids, I don't have enough time to take care of every one of you.  Would you like me to ignore you because I am too busy with everybody else?

"Besides, will you play with child #5? If nobody plays with him..."
"...then Mami will have to have child #6 to play with him! That's too many!"  EggEgg gets the idea and finishes my sentence.

Almost immediately, he has another idea. "But if I am all grown up, then you can have another kid!"
"Are you crazy? I will be 60 then!"

"How about Mami giving a child away, then you will have space for another baby."  He suggested.

"Great idea! How about we start off by giving you away? How would you feel?"
Sometimes, EggEgg's low level of empathy gets me really worried.