Uterus is a funny word.

My husband and I try hard to be honest with our kids.  We don't shy away from conversations about religion, death, and the like.  We try to give them the facts in language that they - at ages 4 and 2.5 - can, to some extent, comprehend.  We have had some misfires for sure.  For example, when our beloved dog Nellie passed away, I spent fifteen minutes explaining that she had died and that we weren't going to see her again.  When I was done, my then 2.5 year old son looked at me and said, "Am I going to die in a pool?" After taking a few seconds to digest this inquiry, I realized that the whole time we were talking about Nellie, he had thought that I was saying "dived."  So, I started the whole conversation over using the word, "dead."  To this day, the twins are scared of the pool.

Anyway, we are also careful to use the proper words for body parts - a penis is a penis, and a baby doesn't grow in a woman's stomach, but rather, her uterus.  The kids are cool with this.  The boys understand that they don't have a uterus, and Isla knows that she does.  Given this, I have been preparing for the inevitable procreation discussion.  While the question of how a baby gets IN to a woman's uterus has not yet arisen, the question of how it get OUT has.  I explained the two ways that a baby is delivered; the kids seemed to take it well.  Soon after, however, Isla decided that she does not want to have babies.  Assuming that this was the result of my explanation, I told her about adoption.  She seemed to like that a lot more -- although our conversation hit a low point when she asked if she could "return the baby to the baby store."

As I was putting the Hayes to bed the other night, he told me that he wants to have five babies.  He asked me how he could do this since he does not have a uterus.  I told him that when he gets married, his wife can have babies.  He grew very concerned and said, "But Mommy, Isla doesn't want to have babies!"  I replied, "That's ok, because Isla can't be your wife."  He was momentarily relieved, but then his face fell once again. "Mommy, I don't know if Kardynn wants babies!"  (Kardynn is his best friend/ girlfriend)  I explained that this is a conversation he will have with Kardynn at a later date.  MUCH much later.