September 26, 2007

And It's in Working Order, Too

A while back we were babysitting the two daughters of some friends at our house. As the older girl--a kindergartener--and I were exiting the playroom, she suddenly said, "[Puppy] didn't grow inside of you. He grew inside of another woman, and she couldn't take care of him so she gave him to you to take care of."

"That's right," I said, a little surprised. "The woman's name is K___. That's a picture of her over there."

We've never talked adoption with any of our friend's kids, although we certainly have with their parents. Her mom is pregnant with their third child, so siblings and pregnancy have been a big topic of conversation lately in their house. My guess is that the little girl had been asking about our family and her mom had tried to explain why I hadn't been pregnant.

Earlier that same evening we had been playing with our two house rabbits and she had asked if the bunnies were girls. Upon hearing they were, she immediately wanted to know whether they could have babies.

"No," I replied. "They had an operation, so they can't have babies anymore."

"My dog had an operation, too. She can't have babies either," she told me. After a pause, she asked, "What does the operation do?"

"They take out their uterus. Without a uterus, animals can't have babies."

That answer seemed to satisfy her, and she turned to leave the room. Halfway across she turned back to me with a smile.

"My mom sure has a uterus!"

6 comments:

BlessedWithDaughters said...

Poignant AND funny! She is one smart cookie!

Thanks for sharing this lighthearted anecdote. Just what I needed tonight...

Min

Patti said...

Out of the mouth of babes! That brought a huge smile to my face. Thanks for sharing your story.

Hugs - Pep

Anonymous said...

Oh that reminds me of such a FUNNY story. When we were waiting for our daughter, adopted from China, my then three-year old son was having a playdate. The other boys mom was pregnant. My son was explaining where babies come from. He said "there are two ways you can have a baby. You can 'dopt one or grow one in your mom's belly. You're growing your baby, we're 'dopting ours." The other little boy nods and says solemnly, "the dog put the baby in my mom's belly." Without thinking, I say "oh, no honey, Daddy put the baby in your mommy's belly." The Mom was not happy I shared that with her son, because in their house they teach their children that GOD puts babies in Mommy's bellies. (Lot of miracle births, I know) Anyway, I laughed and laughed as she explained that to me, and said -- well, either you mumble or your son's dyslexic cause he heard DOG! And I couldn't let him go around believing that -- it's gross.
DS-L

The Greek Mama said...

First, I love it that you have a picture of "K__" up in your home. That means so much to me, as a bmom.

Second, that little girl is SO cute! Her parents did a great job in satisfying her questions in a suitable way and you did a great job in explaining the uterus. :-D

That put a smile on my face! Thanks!


-tk

Rachel said...

Oh my gosh that is so funny :-)

My VERY fertile sister was explaining to my 4 year old neice that some people can't get pregnant very easily and sometimes they have to take medicine to try and have a baby..

After taking this in my neice said "mommy you must take A LOT of medicine!" lol....

Anonymous said...

I love kids. :)

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