Monika: Dad, why are all those white things [dogwood tree seeds -ed.] blowing around?
Me: They’re seeds.
Monika: Why are all the seeds blowing around?
Me: Because the tree wants to have a baby.
Monika: Oh. I call that a baby tree, but the tree calls it a baby.
(some time later)
Monika: Why do trees want to have a baby?
Me: Don’t all grown ups want to have a baby?
Monika: But trees can’t talk.
Me: What about dogs? They have babies.
Monika: Yeah, (emphatically making an important distinction) but they can’t talk to them. They can have a baby but they can’t talk to the baby.
Me: There was a man named Aristotle who said that all grown-up things want to have a baby. What do you think about that?
Monika: No. I don’t get it. I was not born from Mom. All things are born from the world. Mom had four babies in our world: Felicity, me, Manny and Charlie.
Me: What about Frankie and James?
Monika: They were not born in our world. [James and Frankie were born when we lived in other places that Monika has never been to – ed].
