Most evenings Rob or I spend a few minutes with Cole, cuddling or just hanging out, one on one, before he goes to sleep for the night.  A while ago I had an entertaining conversation with him and am just now writing about it.  It had to do with the subject of engagement rings. I usually don’t wear mine, and for some reason I had worn my diamond ring and it had made quite an impression on Cole.  We talked for a couple of minutes about the process of buying an engagement ring, how much a diamond costs, why people engage* in the tradition, and so on.  I thought he had a kind of abstract interest in the process, seeing as how his mother owns one, but it seemed he was mainly interested in a particular facet** of it.  Eventually we ended up here:

Cole:  “Does the man always have to buy an engagement ring?”

Mom: “No, it’s something that you and whomever would probably agree upon. Not everyone wears engagement rings.  It’s not something people do in Egypt, for example.”

Cole: “So I don’t have to buy one?”

Mom: “Not if you don’t want to, honey. Sometimes both men and women will wear engagement rings, it doesn’t have to be only for the girl.”

Cole: “What if she really wants me to buy one, do I still have to buy one even then? Can I just decide not to buy one?”

Mom: “I really don’t think you need to worry about this right now (!!)- if it’s so important to you then you’ll probably choose to marry someone who doesn’t care about such things.”

Cole thinks about all this for a minute.  Then he finally says, with emphasis indicated:

“Oh,I’m never getting married, no, no, definitely _ never_ getting married”.

I guess we’ll have to look to Lena for grandkids…

* pardon the pun!

** okay, pun #2 and over the top- but I couldn’t resist!