A night or two ago, Eleanor (4yo) fell asleep first and I went to talk with Alex (6yo). He was asking about the baby and wanted to know how she was going to get out of my tummy. The first thing he did was make an awful face and ask if the doctor was going to slice me open to get her out. I instantly tried to calm him by saying that wasn't necessary but that only opened a new can of worms:
"So mom, exactly how does she get out of you then?"
My very logical, science minded child wanted details, steps probably, labeled from 1-10 on how a baby is to go from inside to outside. Is it wrong to not be ready to go there? I don't want to lie to the child, but he doesn't need to know the whole truth, right?? I did say that moms are special and our bodies do amazing things to get a baby out. He already asked if I was going to "throw her up" so I am sure it is just a matter of time before he asks if I am going to poop her out. I tried to liken it to the Tooth Fairy or even Santa, as truly, the birth of a child is a little magical just like those things.
Oh, Eleanor has learned how to make herself burp this week. She likes to try pretty much any time she thinks about it, even if she has just eaten. Not fun trying to explain that the more she does this the greater her chance of throwing up will be.
And I got my hair cut today and was feeling super fabulous about it, when she looks at me and says she likes the old hair better.
Ha! For what it's worth, I like your new 'do! Don't they say that if they're old enough to ask, then they're old enough to hear the answer? Whew, that's a tough one! There MUST be some sort of book to help explain things to Alex. If not, then I smell a million-dollar book idea! We'd just have to figure out how exactly to write it... or worse, illustrate it :-)
ReplyDelete