The birds and the bees, and the criminals

"Do you have to have sex twice if you have two children?"

"Yes, Stella, you do. Unless you have twins."

(And why the heck are you asking me that?!)

I am so not prepared for this next phase of parenting. I mean, I thought my daughter would at least have lost a baby tooth before she asked me questions like that. Yikes. Chris is way more nonplussed by the whole thing. He's already read Stella a book all about it, a book recommended by his sister via this great blog: http://birdsandbeesandkids.com.

I guess that puts Stella in the distinct minority of girls who learned about the birds and the bees from their dads.

My all-girls education and school hymn — "Lord, they daughters pray thee, make us one and all, like the polished corners of thy temple wall"— make me a less-than-forthcoming teacher on the subject.

I'll hang back and field questions from Zoey about our penal system. "Mama, what do they do when the jail is all filled up but they need to put someone else in it."

Seriously? From a four year old?

Being from California, that question was easy to answer: they just make more. I'll wait a few years before laying my liberal assessment of our crazy penal system on her. She can wait. After all, there are bigger issues weighing on her, like whether bears can sneak into the house at night.


POSTSCRIPT:
Guess what happened right after I typed this?...