Where do babies come from?

The beginning of Second grade is going great so far. (Thank you Lord!) They have to do timed math for homework. Which means, they have a sheet of math problems and they have to complete as many as they can in one minute and 15 seconds. What a challenge for a perfectionist!! We're working through it. But, his behavior at school has been acceptable so far and we're just thrilled. They had a party in the school library last Friday and got to dress up like a character from a book they read over the summer. Check out our cowboy. Of course, he can't take a toy gun to school so Pop made him a cool lasso...



And he also lost his BIG front tooth!! This is his fourth tooth to come out and he looks so cute with with the gap in the front. When I was in second grade I was missing both of my front teeth. Daniel might be there soon:

I have to tell you about a conversation we had on our vacation. I got an email that a girl I work with who was pregnant when I left lost her baby. What a sad time. Daniel overheard me sharing this with Jason. He said, 'How did she lose her baby?' Whew! I always try to answer his questions truthfully and not shield him from the sad parts of life, but still in an appropriate way. So I said, 'You know that babies grow in mommies tummies.' (we had a good friend he calls Ms Bunny who had a baby and we talked about how she had a baby in her tummy) 'Well, this lady mom works with - her baby got sick and died. So she won't be able to be born.'




Daniel says, 'I don't get it mom. How does the baby get in the mom's tummy?' (Whoa! Really?) I tell him, 'Well, that's how God designed it. The baby starts out as a little speck in the mommies tummy and then it grows and grows and when it's big enough to be born, it comes out of the mommies tummy and is born. And that's his birthday!' (let's see if that satisfies him)

He looks across the table at me with that sweet face and says, 'Did I grow in your tummy Mom?'

Do you ever wish you had a pause button? You could push it and pause everything, the whole world, while you come up with the right response. I totally need that pause button! I was flabbergasted. We do talk about when he lived in Ukraine 'with all those kids'. He remembers it. He knows he is from Ukraine. What I have not done a good job with, is to talk about his birth mother. I don't have the words. I don't know what to say to make him understand when I don't understand myself. Avoiding it hasn't been the best choice. He was almost five years old when we got him so I assume he remembers and knows he didn't start out with us. But it's our job to help him connect all these dots. So, without the benefit of a pause button - I plunged right in...

'No, you didn't grow in mom's tummy.', I said. 'You grew in another ladies tummy in Ukraine. You were born and she couldn't take care of you so she took you to the place with all the kids where they could take good care of you until Mom and Pop could come get you. And now you're OUR little boy who we love sooooo much!' He got a big smile on his face and said, 'OK.' And then we moved on to the next topic. No more questions, for now. Huh. It's just such a wide arc of emotions and it happens so quickly! I need to talk with him about it more and just make sure that he knows he can ask whatever questions he has and will get honest answers. I think he knew the answer to that question was No, but he didn't really know the follow up information. I did the best I could. I will be prepared next time!