Ready, Set, Grow!

WARNING: Explicit material.

Okay, first let me clarify and say that this material really isn't that explicit. The pictures included within this text are normal body parts and the conversation is normal as well. There is however, potential for things to be taken out of context or for people to be offended thus the warning.

Please understand what I explain is our family's position and I respectfully ask you not to judge us for our choices nor would we judge you. Thank you, enjoy :)

A few months ago, Macy mentioned the word puberty. She used it totally out of context so we had a chuckle about it then & I very briefly explained what puberty meant. You can view the previous post here. For some reason, I've been pressed to share some things with her. I don't know why, but I kept having a reoccuring feeling that I should share the REAL facts with her. I don't think she needs to know all about sex, that's too mature for her, but I do think she needs to know about her own body & what will happen in the next few years. Fact: Puberty begins between the age of 8 1/2 and 11 +/-. Macy is almost 8. Lots of girls in her grade are already 8 & have been for some time, she is young for her grade. I also happen to know that Macy hangs with a couple sweet little 5th grade girls in her after school program. Anyone know how old a 5th grader is? Yeah, they're 11. Besides all those things, there are some things a mom just knows. I didn't want to miss an opportunity & I wanted to make sure she heard legit information, delivered in a developmentally appropriate way.

So, we got the book you see here. I read the book first to make sure it was developmentally appropriate. Turns out, it is developmentally appropriate and explains stuff well. After reading the book by myself, I reminded Macy of the time she talked about puberty . She recalled that conversation & got a good laugh about it again. I then explained that probably some of her friends were going through puberty. She concurred, telling me "Yeah A__ has her period and so does A____." I asked her if she knew what a period was & how it happened, she said "No, just that you have blood from down there." I agreed & told her we'd read this book about puberty (and showed her the book) so she could learn about it if she would like. She agreed & asked me if we could do it before she went to bed that night.

The book has about 10 chapters. I read them aloud to her a few nights in a row. We stopped whenever she had questions, talked about it, she'd share a story if she had one & then we'd move along. We also talked about the necessity for privacy & what was appropriate to share or not share in public or with other people outside her home. She understood all those things.

Have I told you before our family is pretty humorous? Well, there was one page in particular, p. 73 to be exact, where it showed a picture of the vulva. It used the term "lips" to describe the labia. The point of the whole blog is this hilarious statement that caused the two girls in our home to fall out of the bed laughing so hard ...

"Well, yeah-uh, you can see why it's called lips! Look at it, if you turn it this way (turns book on its side) it looks like lips." ---Macy

Then followed with ...

"Mom. Can you make sure whenever I have my period that you don't make a big deal about it? That you're not all (said in very high pitched, happy like Minnie Mouse voice) ooohhh yeaaahhh, I'm so happy!", followed by her demonstrating very rapid hand claps.

Me: "Sure. I can do that. So you want it all business, right?"

Macy: "Yes. All business."

Me: "Got it."

And all I could hear in my head was this:

Macy's "BIG" Announcement

This Really Needs to Stop

For the loooooove! When will "the world" stop influencing my child?!? Oh, silly me! Never.

M: "I know what those I heart boobies bracelets mean."

A: (thinking) Oh, that's just great. Here we go again, me having to explain something I shouldn't yet have to.

A: "You do, huh? What do they mean?"

M: " It's for you know, when someone has cancer in their boobies. So people will donate money to make a cure for it."

A: "I think you're right! But Boobies really isn't the best word to go around saying. It's kind of inappropriate."

M: "Oh yeah! I know. I just wanted to tell you what they're for..."

She obviously made the connection that children shouldn't participate in things that are inappropriate and the conversation continued ...

M: "I wonder why kids wear them then?"

A: "Ya' know, that's a great question. Why do you think kids wear them?"

M: (shrugs)

A: "Would you like to know what I think?"

M: (shakes her head yes)

A: "I think it's okay to support causes, things like trying to find cures for diseases such as breast cancer or autism or anthing else you see bracelets & t-shirts & bumper stickers for but sometimes companies use their slogan or logo, I heart boobies is a slogan, in a way that attracts negative attention."

M: "What do you mean negative attention?"

A: "Well, remember we said boobies is an inappropriate word, right?"

M: "Mmhmm."

A: "When whoever made those bracelets chose to use that word, they knew it would make people look twice at the bracelet, it would draw attention."

M: "Ohhh, yeahhh ... cause it's a bad word."

A: "Right.", "So while it makes them see what the cause is, helping people with breast cancer, it's doing so by drawing attention to a negative word."

M: "Ohhhh, so just like I wouldn't stand up in class & say, Miss Wolf I needa take a grunt?"

(laughter)

A: "Yes, just like that." (more laughter)

M: "I'd just say I need to use the restroom because that's more appropriate."

A: "Exactly."

Hunks & Chunks

When I first heard this term, I thought “Hunks & Chunks”? Hmmm … that’s a great way to say fit vs. flab … I still don’t really know what it represents but when I describe to you the example I was given of “Hunks” & “Chunks” you’ll probably wonder what kind of soap opera, love story my 2nd grader is endulging in! Hey, whatever juicy storyline it takes to teach phonics works for the Walkers!

M: “Oh! Mom. I have to tell you something!”, “You and Dad will loooove it!” “You’ll laugh.”

M: “We have these things called hunks and chunks …”

A: I interrupted with an exaggerated gasp followed by “MACY! You can’t be tellin’ people they’re chunks!” and then I sang the line from the song in Madagascar 2 “Chunky, Chunkay, chunkay …” but she cut me off with her cute little giggle ...

M: “No, there’s one I wanna’ tell you.”

A: “Okay baby, I’m listening now.”

M: “ ’E’ said, (very exaggerated lovey, gushy, mushy voice) Oh, I loooove you ‘A’! ‘A’ said absolutely nothing. So when you see ‘EA’ you say ‘E’!”

My take on this whole Hunks & Chunks thing is it’s love story between letter sound combinations. Is that what you call them? Letter sound combinations? For the love of Pete people, I don’t know! I’m just glad to see my kid’s teacher is more creative than the age old, “I before E except after C.” I guess nowadays it’s like reality TV for letter sounds! I’m in as long as the letters don’t end up with 16 & Pregnant in there anywhere!

Oh, and this is a sidebar but the two words together, Hunks & Chunks, makes me wanna’ sing this MC Hammer song. Can't you hear it? ... Hunks and a Chunk, Hunks and a Chunk we like the sounds with a Hunks and a Chunk ... Yes, I just made up my own song, don't judge.

She's Got Re-spon-si-bil-ity ... Walk. Responsibility. Talk.

Yeah, yeah so I ripped off the title from Lloyd Price's song, Personality so what? The point is ladies & gents we have a seven year old who's ASKED for responsibility! Now, mind you she asked with a price tag attached but that's okay--it let's her understand the value of working hard for something she wants.



In our home, we've not really practiced having chores with payment attached. Sure, we agree with providing an allowance and sure we agree with expecting participation in chores but monetary value on doing those chores has not yet been discussed .. that is until today! In the past, Macy has just done as we've asked.



Macy accompanied me on a Sonic run today. While we waited for our drinks this is what took place:



M: "Mom, do you think I could start earning an allowance?"

A: "Well. Sure. I think that's a great idea! When we get home, we should sit down & discuss what some appropriate chores might be. What do you think would be a good idea?"

M: "Hmm .. (thinking) I think making my bed."

A: "Everyday."

M: "Yes. Everyday."

A: "Okay, that could make the list."

M: "How much do you think I can get paid for doing chores?"

A: "Well, that depends on what you do. You'll only get paid for work you do-you either do ALL of it or you don't get paid. But we'll come up with some ideas when we get home. We'll write them down & make an agreement."

M: "Okay! That sounds good to me."



I wanted to give her time to think about the things she could reasonably do. When we got home, she pulled out a spiral notebook and we began making a "contract". We agreed that it would last for 2 weeks to see if she needed to increase or decrease her responsibility. She was advised if her responsibility decreased, so did her pay.



As we discussed some of the things (you'll see the final list below) the subject of pay also came about.



M: "I wonder how much all this is worth?"

A: "Well, what do you think it is worth? What seems reasonable?"

M: "Um ... (thinking) I believe it's worth five dollars."

A: "So if you do _______ (listing off all the chores she agreed to) then you'll earn $5. But what
should be the consequence if you don't do all of those things on the day you agreed?"

M: "Then I shouldn't get paid!"

A: "Okay ma'am. It's a deal."



We shook hands. She signed the "contract".



*Editor's Note: Some of these items she already does because they're expected. The point is to have her understand the purpose of responsibility and how "working", works. The contract is subject to change after the 2 week period ;)

Flowers & The Trees.

Ever been around a toddler that learns a curse word? Sometimes they use it in context but sometimes they just throw it out in a random place within conversation to see what reaction their parent's give. Usually they do this because they know it's not an everyday word, the word has a "special" meaning, they're just not sure what.

Well, I'm afraid we had a case of the toddlers on our hands this evening. Take a read at what ensued.

"Mom, what are we having for dinner?", asked Macy.
"Oh, I'm not sure yet but I do know I need to go to the grocery store.", I replied.

Macy responded, "Well, sometimes I get nervous about eating other people's food."

"You get nervous about eating other people's food?" I asked, "What does that mean?".

"You know, like when we were at that chili thing at your work?" (referring to a chili cook-off I judged at my workplace), said Macy.

I thought, "Oh, you mean you don't like to eat in front of other people?"

She clarified, "No, like it makes me feel like when I have puberty ... like that."

"Makes you feel like when you have puberty??" At this point, I belted out a very boisterous laugh, I know. It was wrong, but I couldn't hold it back.

"What is puberty? I don't get it?", I asked.

"Then why are you laughing?", she said.

"Well, because I know what nervous is so I'm trying to understand how nervous equals puberty.", I responded.

"Well, I don't really know.", admitted Macy.

"Ohhh, where'd you hear that word? Maybe we could ask them to help us understand. Could we ask them? Who was it?", I pondered.

"Well, I can't really remember. I just heard the word.", I suppose she didn't want to fess up.

"Ohhhh, well. I believe I know what puberty means, I just wanted to know if there was a different meaning for it cause you called it the same as nervous.", I went on to explain.

"Puberty is when your body goes through different levels of changes somewhere between oh, 10 to 12 years old. You'll probably get zits, you'll get little boobies, you'll have a period--you know like when mommy has blood from her vagina & has to use tampons? That's a period. It happens one time every month. You will also get hair under your arms and on your goober."

She just looked at me like oh no you di'unt just sit there & say all that!

We both went from serious to busting up laughing.

"I said nervous was puberty!", she roared laughing even louder.
" Yeah, now you see why I laughed?", I asked.

"Gross.", Macy replied.

Fast As Fast Can Be, You'll Never Catch Me!

We had a small earthquake in Oklahoma yesterday. I anticipated Macy Walker would have one heck of a story on her account of the event; instead all I got was "Eh, it was no big deal." Well, okaythenma'am.

We went on to discuss much more important things, like ...

"Hey Mom, did you ever ding dong ditch when you were little ?",

said with a grin & slight laugh.

Me, baffled for a nano-second at how my precious, innocent, sweet little 7 year old baby already knew what ding dong ditching was, I paused only to quickly spit out,

"Ding dong ditch? What is ding dong ditch?", wasn't that the right thing to do?

Pretend I didn't know to see just how much she knew or would tell??

Shrug-Oh well, I sure thought so!

This time I got a bellowing, HA.HA.HA. as if she was thinking, you're so dumb-you know nothing-kinda laugh and

"It's where you go up to someone's house, ring their doorbell & then run off!"

"Ohhhh", I responded. "Well, what happens if it's a really mean person

and they run out & chase you??"

"Then I guess I'd just run really fast to our house and lock the door!",

followed by more laughter.

I kinda chuckled too this time because a.) I hoped she'd ding dong ditch someone who'd scare the bananas outta' her so she'd not do it again but also because b.) I still don't know how the heck she so accurately knew the ding dong ditch concept ... she's SEVEN for cryin' out loud!

I asked how she learned to do that and warned only to do it to people she knows (apologies to our neighbors in advance), applied the concepts of stranger danger, politeness, etc, etc. but didn't say NOT to do it ... Gimme' a break, we aaaaalll know she would do it anyway but the best part came shortly after.

"Well, you didn't do it but I BET Daddy & Jen Jen did!!!",

she & I both roared laughing.

She's right ;)