Knowledge is Power

A few of the things Emily has brought up this week:

Nipples

This was initiated by finding the Barbie I'd put in the closet two years ago. Remember? I just mentioned it last week and thereby brought it to the universe's attention. I had turned on the closet light to find a pair of shoes. The kids were standing within 2 mm of me, as usual, and Emily looked up as I flicked on the light, "What's that hair up there, Mommy?" It was this:

Thank God she's wearing that little black cover-up, huh?

Anyway, as anyone with children knows, taking a doll's clothes off is pretty much a requirement within the first couple of minutes of receiving it. So the clothes came off (not surprisingly, this didn't take long!), and Emily said, "She has big mountains," while pressing on the doll's breasts.

I've never used the term mountains to refer to breasts, so I guess she was just choosing the most appropriate geological analogy all on her own. At any rate, I decided I might not have been as direct about correct anatomical language as I'd always intended to be, so I said, "They're not mountains, they're her breasts. Every woman has them."

"Yeah," said Emily, "I can see one of yours right now." Only one, apparently. "But Penny and me don't have them."

"But you will," I went on. "Your breasts grow when you start to become a grown-up." Since Penny obligingly already had her shirt off, I pointed to her tiny nipples. "When you get older, they'll grow."

Then ensued a discussion about the fact that everyone has nipples, even boys and Daddy. "But only woman's nipples grow," said Emily, "and boys' nipples don't."

Almost. I really didn't want to leave her with the impression that adult women have giant nipples. So I belabored the point by explaining that the nipples didn't grow. Well, they do grow, but . . .

Whew, this stuff is exhausting.

P.S. That Barbie of the magnificent breasts, hair, and tan? She's now the Mommy to all of the smaller dolls. Beautiful=Mommy. I should bask more in the unconditional love . . .

Birthing Babies

After dinner, Emily came up to me, both hands over her abdomen. "Doesn't it hurt, Mommy, when they cut the baby out of you?"

I did not have c-sections, but I had explained a few months ago (in the car, if I recall) that babies are born in different ways, and she must have seized right onto that giant cut in the tummy.

"Well," I said, "not all babies are born like that, but if they have to, the doctor gives you lots of medicine so you don't feel it happening."

"How else do they get the baby out?"

"Well," (I always have to buy myself a little time) "most babies come out through your body." And I proceeded to use the V word and describe it as the opening below where you go pee pee. I have used the word before, I really have, but what is up with that freaking conditioning that makes it so hard to say? "It stretches," I explained, "so that the baby can fit out."

Emily, sounding relieved and confident: "Right, so it doesn't hurt that way."

Well . . .

Native Americans vs. Indians

Finally, something non-body related! I was reading a book called Children of the Earth and Sky to Emily, one that she picked out because "I like Indians, Mommy." The book has a very nice introduction which talks about how the Native Americans were many different tribes and didn't call themselves "Indians" or by any other one name. And that Columbus called the people he encountered "Indians" because he thought he was in India.

"But I can still call them Indians, right, Mommy?"

"Well,"(you're getting tired of that prevarication, aren't you? So am I.) "Lots of people do say Indians. Even some Native Americans call themselves Indians now. But it's kind of like a nickname someone else makes up for you and maybe you don't really like it." So we thought of a couple of nicknames that might not be so nice. "It's probably better," I said, "If we say Native American or the name of the tribe the person belongs to."

I also said something (which I've said before when the subject has come up) about how a lot of Native Americans died when people like Columbus and other explorers and settlers from Europe came here. She doesn't really have a firm grasp on history or time, though, because she said, "But not when we came here, right, Mommy?"

Sigh. Raising a kid ain't easy.