Kids and Pregnancy

As most of you know, I spend the majority of my time with children ages 2 1/2 - 18--add to that three siblings, the youngest of which turned six a few weeks ago, and you can pretty safely assume that I know a lot about the lives of my dance student's families and the funny things children will say.  Since announcing my pregnancy in November, I've had the pleasure of learning a lot from these children about the way they interpret and understand pregnancy.  In fact, these little comments have been one of the greatest highlights of my pregnancy, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to share them with you, as well as preserve them for posterity--or sibling-related future rehearsal dinner blackmail :-)

Hope you enjoy these anecdotes as much as I do and did...

*During one Ballet I (2nd & 3rd graders) level class shortly after Thanksgiving, one little girl kept dashing over to touch my belly in between every combination. So sweet!

*At the end of our first class after the Thanksgiving break, one of my five-year-old students L. came up to me and said, quietly, "Ms. Brii, my Mommy says you're going to have a baby."
"You're going to have a baby?!" many of the others chorused.
Most of them seemed excited, grinning, and running up to hug me, but one little girl had a bit more to say.
"You're going to have a baby?!" E. said loudly, throwing her arms out to her sides and leaning forward with huge, round, incredulous eyes. "You are going to be in THE WORST PAIN OF YOUR ENTIRE LIFE!"
[I would like to take this opportunity to say that I almost died right then and there. After telling her mother about how E. cracked us up that day, I found out that her older sister had just gotten braces that day and after a lot of complaining about how much they hurt, the mother said, 'Honey, when you have a baby, that's when you'll be in the worst pain of your entire life.' Apparently E. was listening!]

*When my Mom and siblings came to visit in mid-February, everyone tried to prepare my almost-six-year-old brother for how different my body was going to look. I had not seen him since Christmas when  I really wasn't showing yet. So when they arrived, one of the first things my Mom said to him was, "See Ba's big belly?"
He kind of shrugged, and said, "Yeah, but it's not very huge."
I felt terrible for not living up to his expectations of my enormous belly! ;-)

*Later that weekend, my little bro sat on the floor while I lay on the sofa, both of us watching as Baby T's ninja kicks made my belly jump and twitch.
With each kick, in the high, squeaky voice, Kai would squeal, "Let me out! Let me out!"

*My Dad reported to me that at the dinner table a day or two after my little brother's visit to Statesboro, Kai sat, shaking his head and muttering, "How is that baby gonna fit through a bellybutton?"

*One day in late February, while trying to finish up some choreography with my Ballet II (3rd-5th grade level) class, I kept having a brain freezes about what step I wanted to do next.
"Ms. Brii's brain just isn't working today!" I exclaimed in frustration.
"Why not?!" one of my students said, "You have two brains!"
Confused, one of the other teachers and I looked at each other and then said, "No...you have two halves to your brain." We thought maybe she was confused about the hemispheres concept.
"No. You have two brains," she said matter-of-factly. "Your brain and the baby's brain!"
It's hard to argue with that, but apparently, I'm not using my full pregnancy brain power!

*I spent a great weekend visitng my family in late-March for two sibling birthdays, but as it always does, Sunday rolled around and I had to head back to the Boro. My little brother rode with me to my Mom's house so that I could say "goodbye" and he could hang out for the afternoon. In the car, I got to hear Kai's thoughts on family planning.
"Ba, I wish I lived closer to you so I could see Baby T anytime I want."
"I know, but you'll still get to see Baby T a lot, and after school gets out and Baby T is first born, you and Dad will come down to visit and meet the baby."
"How are you going to tell if it's a boy or a girl?"
Hmmm. Tough territory to navigate. "Um...we'll know when it's born," I said. I think I'll leave that convo up to my Dad.
"Are you going to look at it's thing that it pees with?"
No arguing with that. "Well...yeah..."
"Cuz boys have longs ones and girls have little ones."
Smile.

*And Mom and Dad, you might want to get on some really good, long-term vitamins, because you're going to need to be around until you're about 100...Kai has some serious plans for the future...
"When I grow up, I've going to grow five babies! My Dad has four, but I'm going to grow five."