Conversation

Last evening at dinner E and I had a nice long conversation while we waited for daddy to come home.

In between bites (because we are really working on not talking with our mouth full) E's stomach gurgled so loudly I could hear it over L's whining. We both had a laugh and he asked me what that sound was. I jump into a three year old explanation of gastric juices and digestion. E nodded knowingly and says, "So I chew my food and it goes down my throat and then my belly gurgles it up." Rudimentary digestion at its finest. I go on eating.

While I am blithely chewing my food, my son is mulling over various complexities of life and suddenly blurts out, "Chickens hatch from eggs!" We aren't even eating chicken. I beam at my little genius and ask, "What else hatches from eggs?" He lists dinosaurs, other birds and turtles. Now this is the moment I make my mistake. Instead of nodding and encouraging the listing of egg laying creatures like fish, spiders or alligators, I ask, "Did you hatch from an egg?" E wrinkles his nose, sticks out his tongue and sarcastically says, "No no no no no no, no way mommy." We continue eating and I am mid-bite when it comes. "But, where did I come from mommy?"

Great. I am all about answering honestly and accurately any questions I get from the kids, but seriously, he's three and how much does he really want to know. Stressed, I ramble something like, "Well, do you remember when Leah was in my belly? You used to grow in my belly too, and then when you were just right, you were born." Pondering, he finishes his bite and asks, "But how did I get out?" Thinking of his vocabulary and not wanting to introduce the terms labor and delivery, I went with this, "Well, you came out through a tunnel inside my body." I wince, waiting for the follow-up. It takes an enormously long time for him to chew and swallow and finally I hear a sniffle. I look into his big dark, now sad eyes and wonder what I could have possibly said to make him sad when he says, "Did you chew me up to put me in your belly?" Relieved he didn't ask to see the tunnel, I explain that babies don't grow in stomachs and have nothing to do with digestion... when daddy walks through the door and the conversation is mercifully abandoned.