sight isn’t always necessary

We got this book at the library called “Everyone has a belly button”, which describes how a baby develops in the womb from being a tiny cell through when the baby is born.  It’s longer than many of Connor’s books, so he really likes to choose it every night because it means he can stay up later with me.  I read all of the words in the book exactly how they are written, because I’m not really afraid for Connor to know correct anatomical words or for him to ask questions about how things are happening.  It doesn’t go into any detail about how sex happens, so I don’t have to travel down that road yet (he is, of course, only three years old).  However, the book does use terms like “uterus”, “placenta”, “vagina”, and “breasts”.  Once in a while, Connor giggles or says “Va-CHINA” a few times just to bug me.  Last night, however, he was tired and ready for bed, so he was even more focused on what the book was telling him.  He listened carefully and didn’t interrupt throughout almost the entire book, but then on one of the last pages where it describes the mommy’s uterus squeezing the baby out of her body, through the vagina, and into the world… he stopped me.  He looked at me with a very VERY concerned face, and asked “Mommy, does it hurt when the baby comes out of your vaCHINA?  Because I don’t want that to happen if it hurts.”

I had to reassure him that yes, it hurts a mommy a lot, but after the baby is out she is so happy to meet the baby that she doesn’t even remember it hurting.  He seemed OK after that.

Then he wanted me to tell him the story about when he was born.  After a long night of fighting and arguing, it all ended really sweetly.