Mini-lessons

In the car this afternoon, on the way to her lesson, my 11 year-old daughter asked, "Mom, how do you get a baby?"

I drove along for a minute, concentrating on my signaling and turning, while my brain was going a mile a minute.  What the heck?  Where did that come from?  Ok, now, what does she mean exactly?  I must stay calm, this is great that she is willing to ask this question, I must stay calm.

"Well," I replied carefully, "the girl produces an egg, you see, and then the sperm fertilizes the egg, and the egg then becomes an embryo.  Then, the embryo grows in the mom's stomach for nine months, and then you have a baby!"  I glanced over her and smiled the most winning smile...hoping that she would go with that.  Sitting in the passenger seat next to me, her face squished in thought, she shook her head.

"Mom, there is a rumor going around..." She eyed me sideways, "that says you have to mmhhmmhhmm with a ummuuummu?"  The multiple syllables of hummed letters really threw me for a minute.

I admit to being kind of slow on the uptake sometimes.  This time when I turned my head to look at her, her brown eyes were wide open and she was looking at me as if I had three heads.  Heck with it - I'm just putting it out there. "Oh, the rumor says that you have to have sex with a boy?"  Shocked, she nodded, red moving up her neck and covering her face.  "It is true," I added.

"That is so gross!" she gasped laughing hysterically. "But, what exactly does that mean?"

That's another blog post!