Anatomy according to our toddler
Anatomy according to our toddler
Our little man, like any curious toddler, has a wide range of interests. He finds everything that comes along fascinating and usually he wants to know exactly how something works and why. This time it was time for the anatomy of the human body.
I have again been amazed at the imagination of our toddler.
“Mommy, why do I have long antennae there?”
I just picked up the little man after a day of playing at grandparents’ house. Mister had a fall this afternoon and had a fresh scrape on his knee. In an earlier post I shared what these war wounds bring about in terms of rituals. In view of the toddler’s approaching bedtime, I was briefly all do’s and don’ts communicated regarding the treatment of his terrible wound.
Yes, little man, mommy is fully aware of the states regarding fresh scrapes.
As every fresh scrape deserves, this wound was subjected to a thorough examination. Sir sat staring intently at his abrasion for several minutes. From every possible angle the wound was looked at more closely. I watched the secretly cute little scene from a distance. Next came a special question; “Mommy, why do I have all these long antennae there?”Euh…For a moment all alarm bells went off.
Could he have fallen into an oak processionary colony?? Would there be splinters in his wound?? No, that was very unlikely. He made me very curious though. So I went to see what the toddler understood by long antennae.
Together we looked at his wound and I asked what he meant. He pointed it out. Aha!! Mister pointed to the hairs on his legs.
Personally, I didn’t think they were that long. Nor did they remotely resemble the antennae or whiskers of our cats. They were just lovely downy blond hairs.
I explained to him that those are just hairs and that they are everywhere, on his legs and on his arms. That sometimes they go away a little when you have a wound. And that they also grow back as the wound heals. This was all listened to attentively and stored in his toddler brain.
I saw him thinking. Then came the inevitable question; “why do I have hair then?”. Phew, mama had to think about that for a moment. Since the function of body hair is no longer as necessary as in prehistoric times, I tried to talk my way out of this one.
I am already not convinced of the function of all that excess hair. How am I supposed to convince my toddler that it’s important at all? “Well, that’s just what we have, little man.” Bam, I felt like a bad mom for a moment. Such’a mother who explains nothing to her children, who never has time and thinks everything is fine. Again, however, this turned out to be a particularly exaggerated thought. The toddler, to my surprise, simply settled for this answer.
He took one last look at his knee and stood up.
I got away with it easily.
Very nice that the little man is so interested in everything. Sometimes, however, I have no imagination or just simply no answers to his questions. I wonder how long I can get away with an answer like that.
When the ‘why-phase’ arrives, this will probably come more difficult for me. I am holding my’n heart…
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