Birds, Bees, and Bunnies

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During my pregnancy with K, I braced myself for questions from our then three-year-old regarding all things baby, including how she got in there, and how she was going to get out. My training as a counselor has greatly influenced my parenting style in that I try to be open to any topic R brings up for discussion, but also to limit my answers to what is appropriate for his age and development at that time. He seemed to accept our explanations to all of his questions about his baby sister. (Although, when K was in the middle of a crying fit when she was two weeks old, he asked if we could “put her back,” so he might need some clarification on things in the future.)

When we enrolled R in preschool last spring, the preschool teacher had just adopted two rabbits to keep in the classroom. “What a wonderful way for the kids to learn about responsibility and nature,” I naively thought at the time.

In the fall, R came home and proudly announced that the momma bunny was expecting. Delivery day was anxiously anticipated, and R was excited to show us the balls of fluff that resulted.

Then, a few weeks ago (and months after said bunnies were born), out of the blue, R and I had the following conversation:

R:  Mom, how do babies get made?

Me: We’ve talked about this, remember? When a mom and dad love each other, their love makes a baby, and then the baby grows in the mom’s stomach until it’s ready to be born.

R: Oh yeah.

Me (Cautiously): Why did you want to know?

R: Miss C said that we have to get a new house for the dad bunny because the way to get more baby bunnies is to put the dad bunny and the momma bunny in the same house. And we don’t want any more bunnies. We only want this much bunnies. (Holds up eight fingers for emphasis.)

Made sense to me. This conversation seemed to go so well for Miss C that I’m already looking toward the future when the questions get harder and more insistent. Anyone know where I can get some bunnies when he’s about 13?