June 26, 2003 - Thursday
"The pee grows in these round ones," Harry says as he sits on his potty, doing more sensory examining than urinating.
"No, the pee actually grows up here in something called your bladder," I answer, pointing at his lower belly. I think it's always better to be straight about most things like this, even if he doesn't really understand the details.
"The poops grow in here," is Harry's next theory. He's a thoughtful and curious boy and is working this mystery.
"No, actually the poops grow inside the back of your body in something called your intestine," I say, again trying to set the record straight on Harry's biology. But, Harry can be a dogged questioner...
"What are these ones called?" he finally asks.
I hesitate for a moment. He's almost said "balls" himself. Should I go with that? No, I decide, that'd be a little too easy for him to repeat to others. Better to blind him with science, methinks. "Those are called testicles," I say as matter-of-factly as possible. I'm guessing the discussion is not over.
"What grows in those ones," he asks with only the slightest hesitation at that complicated word.
I think again about my philosophy of being as open as possible and, in a couple fleeting seconds of hesitation, of the path that this discussion might take. I think of 'sperm.' I think of trying to explain 'sperm.' Then, I see an opening in a very strict take on Harry's question as it regards his own body. "I don't know that anything is growing in there yet. I think they're just growing right now," I answer with all personal candor. I don't really know if I'm right about prepubescent biology, but it sounds right and from that perspective at least I am honest. Thankfully, Harry does not make the temporal leap that my answer begged.


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