The dawning facts of life

The boy woke up before 6 a.m. the other day, wide-eyed and full of questions, starting with:

“Mommy, when I was an egg in your womb, how did I break out of my shell?”

“Um, human eggs are soft, not hard like the chicken eggs you saw hatching at school. They are a teeny tiny cell.”

“I don’t have a very hard nose like that.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Did you have other eggs inside of you?”

“Thousands, I think..?”

“Will you have a thousand other babies?”

“Heavens, no!”

“Why won’t those other eggs become babies?”

“Because mommy and daddy decided especially that we wanted to have a baby when we had you.”

“But how… why did I grow from an egg?”

“Because daddy gave mommy another cell to make you grow from both of us.”

“How did it get in there? Did he cut you open?”

“No, he was very nice about it.”

Naturally, I was caught off guard by these questions (particularly at the hour when they were asked), and I got out of the larger conversation that day by asking if we could talk about it after mommy has more sleep (and then both of us oversleeping for his camp). I expect we’ll resume the conversation soon.

So… I’ve got the old “Where Did I Come From” book from when I was a child, and lots of human body/science books that show the whole sperm meets egg thing – any book recommendations for presenting the real deal narrative with good science?

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2 thoughts on “The dawning facts of life”

  1. I learned from Where did I Come From, too! Madison really adores "It's So Amazing" and the younger kid version "It's Not the Stork." Both are excellent. So is "It's Perfectly Normal" (they're all by the same author & illustrator). Good science, good progressive take on lots of issues.

  2. I just looked at my copy this morning. That sperm with the top hat and rose is still hilarious.
    Thanks for the recommendations! I found a couple of those in an Amazon search. Now that I know from you and Madison that they're worthwhile, I'll be sure to check them out. Thanks!

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