Birds and Bees, Mostly Birds

We watched Winged Migration for movie night recently. It's a beautiful documentary about birds, one of my favorite films. There is a moment about small hatchlings and eggs, I can't remember precisely what but something about baby birds and Patrick made a comment about the mother bird having pooped out the chick. And that really caught Gerret's attention.

"Babies are born out the butt? Is that how Sam was born?"  

I quickly realized my kids were sorely undereducated in this area. Sex education was not something my parents were stellar at giving me. And I get the feeling that neither were Patrick's. So we just have never known how to broach the subject with our kids.

The short exchange about pooping out babies convinced me that I needed to step up, so I found a few library books .... 

I had this vision of our family sitting around the livingroom, each child studying a book while Patrick and I sat ready to answer any questions. The reality was two boys who were too embarrassed by the subject to do anything more than gingerly pick up a book, examine the cover, drop the thing, and retreat to their room. Auburn on the other hand, surprised me by remaining engaged through all three books, which I read to her in one sitting. She asked intelligent questions and expressed understanding. She even managed to keep her penchant for potty humor on the down-low.

So I guess I missed a window of opportunity with each of my older boys. Apparently it happens around age five. At least I'm ready now for Sam. 

Later that night, I attempted to show off her new understanding to Patrick and Gerret by giving her a little quiz. 

"What do boys have that girls don't?"

"A penis!"

"And what do girls have?"

"Testicles!"

Obviously, we have more work to do.