The birds and the bees start early

The other day, Baby Boy came out and asked me a question that was obviously on his mind.

"Mommy have penis?"

I carefully crafted a response.

"No Mommy doesn't have a penis. Only boys have penises. Mommy is a girl. Girls have vaginas."

"Daddy has penis?" he then asked.

"Yes, daddy has a penis. He's a boy."

Since then, he keeps on broaching the topic with me. He's really trying to get his facts straight. Now, when he asks if I have a penis, I say "What do you think?" Usually (not always) he replies, "Mommy has gina."

At first I wondered if it was odd for a 2-year old to ask such a question. I soon discovered that this is a common theme for this age group. I think it coincides with all the potty training books that we've been reading. He's suddenly become very aware of certain body parts. I guess it was only a matter of time before he noticed that there were "mechanical differences" between the genders.

Tonight I was relaying this story to a friend over dinner in a restaurant. Bad idea! When the little guy caught on to what we were talking about he yelled quite loudly, "Mommy penis! Mommy has gina!" Then he started running through the restaurant yelling "penis!" and "gina!" Luckily her annunciation wasn't clear enough for the other diners to decipher. Or if they did, they quietly laughed behind their napkins. I'm sure my face was bright red!

Now that he's old enough to learn about these body parts, I wonder if he's old enough to know learn about when NOT to talk about them....