I knew you were going to venture into certain territories eventually. All kids have questions about life. About babies and mommy and daddy parts and such. But who knew you'd throw so many into one half-hour stretch?

We were watching a giraffe documentary on Animal Planet the other night. Lady the giraffe is pregnant and gives birth. You watch in amazement. Then you turn to me and giggle and ask, "Is there a baby in the regiraffe's* belly?"

Yep.

"How did it get out?"

Well, the mommy giraffe pushed and pushed and the baby came out.

"Was I inside a belly, Mommy?"

Yes.

"Inside a Korean Mommy?"

(Wow, you listen to me better than I think!)

From there, you proceeded to ask about me being in someone's belly and daddy being in someone's belly. Fascinating topic, I'd guess! Then you turned around an asked me, "What are those?" as you pointed to my chest. Uh-oh! So I tried to explain those.

"What are they for?"

Wha??? Oh, jeez! How and where do I go with that. I tried the nursing angle to make the connection with the giraffe baby, but you're too smart for your own good: "If you didn't have a baby in your belly, why you need them, Mommy?"

So more of the babies in the bellies and the chest ornamentation proceeded. Until we turned off the TV as the mommy giraffe was diagnosed with some illness that could or could not be deadly. Then came the questions about animals being sick and dying. I tried to distract you with other topics, but you wanted to know about the giraffe being sick. I explained that I had a cat that got sick and died. Sometimes that happens to animals. Then you looked at me very seriously and asked, "Did your cat become a statue then?"

Does someone have a book with the answers to all of these? Help!

*You put "re" in front of a lot of words these days.

Posted on November 12, 2007 12:30 PM