Balls

I've mentioned before how I try to be pretty open as far as our bodies are concerned with our children, especially when it comes to childbirth.

Well, tonight, it stepped up a notch. Unexpectedly. All because of one word.

Balls. Thank you, Callum. 


We all (me and the kids, all four of them) were showering together. I had Callum in my arms, washing him. I get down to his penis and say "let's wash your balls...." I've said it before to be funny, just being funny, but no one had ever caught on. Except for tonight.

Mairead says "What are balls?"

I didn't know what to say, so she asked again. So, I said "It's part of a penis, called the testicles"

Mairead: "Do the balls hold up the doody?" (She calls the penis a doody, don't ask me why, it's a name she came up with when she was really little, not me)

Now, how the hell do you answer that question???

I may be good about talking about OUR female body, but the males....Not so good.

My response: "Uhhh, no"

Mairead: "Welllllll, what do they do?"

By this point, Kevin was snickering and I was trying to keep my laughter hidden.

Me: "Ummmmm......well, it keeps the sperm inside"

Yeah. Yeah. You know where this is going.

Mairead: "What's sperm?"

Here we go.....

Me: "It helps to make a baby" trying to be as general as possible. She may have seen her baby brother's birth, but she still hadn't a clue as to HOW the baby got inside of mommy except for the fact that when a mommy and a daddy love each other, they make a baby.

Mairead: "Inside of the daddy?"

Me: "No"

Mairead: "Well, how does the sperm make a baby?"

Me: "Well, we have ovaries and they are right *here*. They have eggs inside of them. So the sperm goes inside of the mommy, goes inside of the egg, and that makes a baby."

You could see Mairead's mind spinning fast trying to process that bit of information. I was anxious to see where the rest of the conversation would go next, but thankfully, that was enough. She then proceeded on to the topic of birth, a topic I am much more comfortable talking about with my 5 year old.