you say hoohoo, i say vagina

We are very open about our bodies in our family. The kids love to be naked and while the adults don't generally strip down and dance around the living room with glee, we definitely don't hide our bodies from our kids. The words penis and vagina hold no more or less significance than the words head or elbow, because we don't play the shame game when it comes to anatomy or bodily functions.

Kelan has the sensibilities of your average 2 year old boy. Being naked is a source of joy and even has its own dance, the "nah nah boo boo". He knows the word penis and thinks butts are funny, but that is about as far as his interest in physiology goes. Minna, on the other hand, is full of questions about how bodies work. We talk about the nervous system, the digestive system, eyesight, muscles and bones, and yes, how babies are made. One night when we were chatting in her bed, she asked about how babies get into mamas. She settled back into her pillow and sucked her thumb while I told the story. Daddies have sperm, and mamas have eggs. The sperm and the egg have to connect to make a baby. The Daddies sperm travels from inside his body and comes out through his penis. Minna had to stop sucking her thumb at this point because her mouth was agape, and then said...."what the????" in the most incredulous tone. She had the same reaction when I told her that the Daddies penis had to enter the mama through her vagina.

The weird thing is not so much that she reacted the way she did, but that she's never ever commented with disbelief about any other topic we've discussed. She's been told the physics of how airplanes fly and all about how volcanoes work, which to me are way more fucking incredible than ejaculation, without even a hint of awe. So why, when it comes to talking about penises, vaginae, and sex is she weirded out?

If I had told her that babies are delivered by giant birds that wear delivery man hats I think she would have bought it, full on. Was my honesty, my need to keep it real, the wrong approach for a pre-school brain? Was she picking up on signs of discomfort I was unknowingly portraying? I don't know.

We'll keep dancing naked and answering questions honestly up in here, but I'll be mindful of the fact that the subject of sex carries with it cultural baggage that even a four year old can perceive. What the....???