Kathy called me at work today and told me she thought we should get “the test.”

You see, while Kathy was fixing breakfast, Danny said to her, “It looks like there is a baby growing in your tummy.” He then dashed into the living room to tell Nicole his exciting discovery, “Mommy’s growing a baby in her tummy!”

Though Kathy had been having some concerns the past few nights, she had only shared them with me in the privacy of our dark, late-night bedroom.

Where did he get this notion? (Especially since Kathy doesn’t look like she has a baby growing in her tummy.)

Both Nancy and Alice were (and still are) expecting at the farm. Nancy is several months along, so perhaps Danny was jealous that Shawn was going to have another little brother or sister. Fetal envy, one might say.

Kathy went up to buy “the test” along with (for some reason) a mysterious bottle of Clearly Canadian which Tom Finley had just told me that morning was trading low and might be a good stock to buy.

Kathy had dinner started when I came home. We set up the vials and chemicals in our bathroom lab. Having always done so well in science courses, I conducted the experiment. Kathy went downstairs, after her contribution, to check on dinner.

At the end of the test, you are supposed to wait 10 minutes to check the little stick indicator for the color blue. The stick turned blue within the first minute. Danny was equally impatient when he changed his chemical vial blue. In fact, Danny was impatient throughout his pregnancy and even refused to wait for the doctor at his birth.

We may have an energetic little brother on our hands.

I invited Kathy up to see the results of the experiment. There was no doubt. We hugged and talked about it a while, both excited and a bit shocked. Then we went downstairs to make the announcement to kids and introduce them to the blue stick, the only tangible evidence of their new sibling’s existance.

Nicole looked up with disblief from reading on the floor. “Are you sure?”

The directions said the blue stick was 99% accurate. I wouldn’t bet against it. We were sure. She then hopped up and hugged Kathy shouting “Congratulations!”

Danny hopped up and down (which he does much of the time anyway) and clapped his hands repeating, “I’m excited. I’m excited.”

How did Danny really know? I think it was mental telepathy. His young mind is not cluttered with the trivia that blocked the subtle signals from his new little brother or sister’s mind. “Hello out there.” Plus, Danny’s brain and the baby’s brain are traveling around at the same height. Certainly this gives him a clear advantage over the rest of the higher brains in the house.