More babies...

From the mouth of a pre-schooler, words that almost stopped a grown man's heart.

A typical work day conversation at my house -- repeated almost daily -- in the quiet before the day begins
Jack: good morning mommy
Me: good morning Jack
Jack: good morning sweet pea/angel/baby/some other pet name he has picked up from Luke
Me: good morning big boy
Jack: mommy someone's missing. do you know who's missing?
Me: no baby...who's missing?
Jack: my daddy. he's working.

Tuesday night -- Luke was outside doing daddy things, dinner was being decided, the boys were inside with me playing...

Jack: Mommy, someone's missing. Who's missing?
Me: No one is missing baby. Daddy is outside -- he'll be right back.
Jack: No...someone else is missing. Do you know who is missing?
Me: (thinking to myself) which grandparent is he going to say is missing today? or which aunt? or which dog? or which friend? No Jack I don't know who is missing.
Jack: the other babies are missing
Me: (with a little trepidation in my voice) what other babies?
Jack: the other babies in our family
Me: Jack there aren't any other babies in our family.
Jack: well there should be. we need more babies; we need more brothers
Me: (almost choking) well tell your dad
Luke enters the room
Jack: daddy we need more babies in our family. we need more brothers at our house.
Luke: (after the shock subsided) yeah, uh-huh, okay...(and into the kitchen he walked)

Seriously -- we have no idea where Jack came up with this idea or why. He has actually had this conversation with me twice -- which is why I told him to tell Luke. I wasn't exactly sure how to respond to his comment. So far there hasn't been anymore talk of more babies since Tuesday but knowing Jack he'll drop the subject for a week or two and it will pop out again in the most random time.