Human Sexuality, Reproduction, and Babies

Singularity has been studying his copy of It's So Amazing, by Robie H. Harris, again. 

About a year ago, Singularity went through a phase of being interested in this book. His interest at the time focused mainly in the physical differences between females and males (he drew vulvas on the page that showed the physical progression from baby girl to old woman!) and on sexual intercourse. He asked me in his most charming way, "Did you and Klailklop do sexual intercourse to make me?" 

This year, two women close to us have been pregnant. Aretha gave birth to Baby G in July, and Kristina's baby is due to arrive in September. And so Singularity has been interested in human reproduction again. 

He has studied the book from cover to cover. My wunderkind has been studying things that interested him since he was 18 months old and we realized that he was able to read. With his encyclopedic mind, he was able to tell me that the section about AIDS and HIV began on page 72. Not only has he been studying the book, but he insisted that I read it, cover to cover, as his bedtime reading over about a week. 

This time around, however, his interest in the book has focused more on the joining of the sperm and egg and pregnancy. He has absorbed so many of the technical details that he was able to explicate the differences between zygote, embryo and fetus. These are details that I couldn't have explained without consulting a reference source. 

I love this book. It does a wonderful job of discussing everything, including same-sex partnerships and adoption, in a gentle and humane way. The only thing it doesn't discuss is transgenderedness.

Anyway, we met Aretha's baby, whom I shall refer to as Baby G, last week. Aaaaah, the softness of a newborn. There is nothing like it. Singularity didn't want to hold her, but I certainly did! 

After we met Baby G, Singularity and I came home and took out our box of baby treasures. It contains, in chronological order, the ultrasounds of his fetal self, our matching hospital wristbands, the footie sleeper that Singularity wore home from the hospital,  the shriveled stump of his umbilical cord, the mobile at which Baby Singularity stared for extended periods, a pacifier and the tether that attached it to his clothing, and the bowl that contained the first rice cereal I ever fed him at 5 months (before then, every cell but one in his body had been nourished by me). I love revisiting these items with Singularity. They remind me of how much I wanted to have a child in my life and how happy I am that I got Singularity as my kid!