D

My daughter loves to "read" books. On Sundays she goes to the nursery and for months now she pulls down a basket of small, square, board books. The first one she reads every Sunday is Daniel, followed by Noah, and then Jonah. I usually leave within the first few minutes as she is launching into Daniel, sitting on the floor, lifting the flaps to reveal various characters like King Darius.

At lunch today, her daddy was out due to another commitment and it was just her and me. She mentioned something about Daniel, maybe in the context of D is for Daniel - even though we usually say Daddy or other things, but she had just been in the nursery and her book was fresh in her mind. I looked at her and wanted to day, "You have a brother named Daniel." [not the name I gave him]

Since she is now of an age of talking and remembering, I didn't follow my gut and say it out loud. When she was younger I would sometimes tell her she had a brother, but now that she is getting a little older I wonder when it will be the right time to tell her, to start mentioning him and letting her know about him, even if he isn't a part of our everyday lives and doesn't want to be.