Home again

We're back from our vacation. M's vacation will actually be a little longer, he has off until the 5th, but I promised to help out with RE (Religious Education, sunday school for Unitarians) this weekend, and one of Arabella's babyhood friends is having a birthday party today, so we drove back from Pennsylvania yesterday.

Arabella has been aware of gender difference for awhile, as in Daddy's a boy, mommy's a girl, I'm a girl, etc, but we're not sure exactly what she was finding the difference in. On our trip, one friend introduced Arabella to the concept of Vagina, since we use the term Dupa (Polish slang term that corresponds roughly to either twat or a**) and she tends to say "body" when she means crotch, since Daddy, when washing her, says "stand up, I want to wash your body" at bathtime. I hadn't used the term vagina since I find it misleading and a bit sad to say that "boys have a penis and girls have a vagina" since in fact the vagina is an absence, awfully hard to point to, and it is awkward and it's not easy to explain "boys have a penis and girls have a whole bunch of parts that together make your reproductive system." And we have a neighbor who is a sex offender, and I didn't want her running around the yard singing out in her amazingly strident voice, "vaginavaginavagina." Thanks.

On to visit friends in Pittsburgh, who have a son, and we bathed the kids together (son is 2.5, A is 3.5) and while his mommy was soaping him up, Arabella says "whats that sticking out of his body?" So I explained it was a penis, and that's what makes boys boys, and not girls (we'll get to chromosomes another year, thank you).

The next day our friends took Arabella and M with their son and his cousin to the Science Museum (Carnegie Institute? ). While there, Arabella got so wrapped up in the fun and excitement she wet her pants. This is not unusual, kids get wrapped up in what they are doing, and forget to listen to the signs from their bladder. It was up to M to deal with it, and he hustled her into the men's room, and into a stall. After gettting her to pee and getting her out of her wet pants and panties, he had to go too, so he put her behind him and began to pee. He said a little head popped around his hip and said, "Daddy, why is your body sticking out?"

At least she didn't tell him it was a tail, like she did last year.

BTW Jen, El Sol (which IMO was the best Mex in Indy, though the service was awful) is closed for renovations and doesn't appear to be reopening soon, and I have only gone to La Hacienda once, and I didn't like it though they do make good margaritas. Remember, after growing up in California and Texas, I am pretty fussy about my Mexican food. Best Mexican food in Indy is at my house.