Sweet Child of Mine

Now that my daughter is 15 months old, she's pretty independent. Actually, she's always been that way, but now she can walk and run, she can feed herself (more or less), and she sleeps about 12 hours a night. According to damn near everyone, now's the perfect time for another child. Why my reproductive decisions are anyone's business is beyond me, but when complete strangers are telling me "oh, time for another one," I get pretty annoyed. What if I (we, actually, since this is not entirely my decision) don't want "another one"? What if I (we) think the one that we have is perfect (she is)? What if we want to quit while we're ahead? What if I want another dog instead (believe me, it's tempting)? Besides, my husband is an only child and he's (relatively) normal, so where's the incentive to add to the brood? Another child means countless more sleepless nights, at least two more years of diapers, if we have a boy it means an entire new wardrobe, if we have another girl it means one more wedding, regardless of gender it means one more college fund, one more possibility of health problems or birth defects, one more child to never stop worrying about. It's exhausting just thinking about reproducing again.

In all honesty, I'm certain that we will have another child and that Alexandra will have a brother or sister someday. But when that's going to happen is nobody's business, and until it happens, I'd just like to enjoy the undivided attention I can give to the perfect child I already have. I'm certainly in no rush to contribute yet again to the world's burgeoning population problem (unlike this woman), so until I am, just tell me what a beautiful child I have and leave the discussion about "another one" out of the conversation.