Fact of Life

Well, we've reached the all-important stage of figuring out the difference between boys and girls. Some of you may already know this story, as it happened a few days ago, but it's still on my mind so I thought I'd share. And, it's still funny. I was up in the attic the other day dragging down some baby items to pass along to someone who needs them more than we do, and I came across Kiddo's old potty chair. I took it down, cleaned it off and showed it to Little Bit - who was immediately interested. She screeched her approval, pointed to it and said, "Potty!" She seemed so excited about it, I asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty. So we got her diaper off and sat her on the pot. Kiddo, very interested himself, and quite surprised at having his old potty chair resurface after months and months of it being MIA, asked, "Can I watch her, Mom?" I didn't really think that much of it. Until Kiddo gasped dramatically and exclaimed, "Mom!!! She doesn't have a penis!!!" He was so shocked and surprised at this simple fact of life that it just really didn't seem like a big deal to me. I'd always wondered how I'd handle the question when it arose, but when it actually came up it seemed like a real non-issue. I said, "No, that's right, bud...she doesn't." "Why?" he asked. "Well, because she's a girl, sweetie. Girls don't have penises." I answer honestly. "Oh," he says, looking confused. After a couple seconds of deep thought (I promise, you could see the steam coming out of his ears!) he said, "Do you have one, mom?" "Nope. I'm a girl." I say matter-of-factly. "Does Nalla?" he queries. (Nalla is the dog.) "Nope. She's a girl, too!" "Oh...well Daddy has one and I do!" He says. "Yup. You and daddy are boys." He seemed satisfied with that and asked me no more questions that day. Since then, however, it has come up randomly a few times and at inappropriate or unexpected occasions. We're trying to keep this to the bare facts at this point because he really doesn't need to know more yet. We've answered the basic question, which was that boys and girls are different and have different parts. It's somewhat amusing, though, to be riding in a car and suddenly hear, in a loud and clear voice from the backseat, "So-and-so doesn't have a penis, cause she's a girl, right Mom?" Oh, the joys of parenthood. TTFN JMS