The Business of Marriage

It seems to me that the age of four is when a little girl starts thinking long term.  She starts to understand the order of society and figures out that the majority of people in this world will at some point pair off.  Like most women, when having a task presented to her, decides to go ahead and tackle it and not put off the inevitable.  Who will I marry? 

This is the conversation that I did my best to stay out of yesterday afternoon:

Mia:  I am going to marry Jac.

Jac:  Well, Josie already told me that she is marrying me.

Mia:  (starting to whine) I need to marry someone I love and I don't love Andrew (another eligible bachelor she knows).  Besides, I need to marry someone close to my age.  Andrew is five.

Jac:  I am five.  I know that I was five before Andrew was five.

Mia:  (really whining at this point)  Will can marry Andrew.

Jac:  Boys can't marry boys.

Mia:  Mommy said that in some United States that boys can marry boys, just not this United State.

Jac:  Well, you can marry Sarah then.

Mia:  I don't want to marry Sarah.  Girls can't marry girls in this United State!

And for all of you who didn't have an older brother to admire, this is very normal.  I remember being dead set on marrying my brother right around this age.  I am not sure when I clued in that this was not only gross but illegal!
Somehow we were diverted to another topic having to do with who did and did not want to go to swim lessons.  By the way, it was a good thing that Jac attended last night because he was told that he officially 'could swim' by his instructor and that he would be ready for Level 2.  Mia was not happy about this and said she would not take another lesson unless Jac was in her group.  I told her she merely had to swim to move up to the next level and explained how and when that opportunity presented itself she needed to show her instructor she could do it.  Jac was on cloud 9 with his self confidence on high beam last night, it was very cute coming from my boy who is so often unsure of himself.  Ladies chasing him, moving up in swim lessons, it looks like it is going to be a good fall.