My previous post included comments on Troy’s attitude towards my pregnancy, including pangs of jealousy (“I wish I was a pregnant lady so people would ask me how I am doing” he even said!). One day, in the later weeks of my pregnancy, I told Troy: There is a saying in Turkish “Pabucun dama atilicak“–it means “Your shoe will be tossed onto the roof.”
“But why?” he asked, tears swelling up in his eyes, “I need to wear them.”
“We will only toss your old shoes,” I replied, to which he said “But then my brother won’t have shoes to wear.”
I have known Troy is an emotionally sensitive, empathetic child ever since he was 3 years old and asked me not to sing “You are my Sunshine.” He said it made him cry because of the verse “Please don’t take my sunshine away.” Knowing this, I never refered to him as my “Number 1.” In the back of my mind I thought if we had more children, I didn’t want them to argue over who is favorite or who is # 1.
So, I call Troy my Number 4.
Number 4–odd number you may think, but Troy knows who comes before him. #1 is Penny, our 13-year-old pit bull, #2 is Komur, our 7-year-old black cat, and #3 is Ringo, our 5-year-old orange tabby cat. I tried to squeeze Max, my brother’s dog, somewhere in that line up, but we setteld on calling him “Uncle’s number 1.”
That makes his brother and sister numbers 5 & 6! But will they fight over who is number 5 and who is 6? Should we call them 5A and 5B, but B comes after A. Maybe Bumblebee-5 and Butterfly-5?
Everyday I wake up thinking of my numbers 1 – 6. And I am so happy to take care of them.
Mamacookita's Blog 
Ayşe, you are such a good mum! Troy is so lucky to be your number 4:) Btw what is my number? Don’t want to be anywhere down from 18!
You have your hands full….Penny would be so thrilled if she knew she was your # 1!