The Birds and the Bees

On the way home from my parents house, I told the girls that they were going to have a new cousin. My four and a half year old then asked, "How do babies get into your tummy and how do they get out of your tummy?" I wasn't ready for this. After a long pause, I honestly replied that it was a long story and I didn't know that I was ready to tell it. To which she replied, "Mommy, we're in the car and it's a long ride home so we have time to talk about it." I decided to give her the accurate, albeit short, version of how they come out which I was hoping would give her enough to think about so that she forgot about the first part. She was completely silenced. After a few minutes, I asked her what she was thinking about. She said "Mommy (she often dramatically begins her responses this way...I wish I could convey the tone of her voice), I am not thinking of anything, I am just looking out the window." What she was really doing was staring at her reflection (one of her favorite things to do) in the window because it was totally dark outside and they like to travel with the backseat ceiling light on. That was probably the only reason she was deterred from pushing the subject. I suppose I had better come up with an age appropriate version of the birds and bees because next time she might ask me during the day without a mirror around.