these are the moments...

Today we went on our first field trip with our new virtual charter school that we are joining in the fall. We went to the planetarium in Salt Lake City. When I registered for this event, I had to choose whether to view an IMAX film about the human body or a planetarium presentation about the stars. I thought the latter choice might be a little over their heads (ha ha ha), and the human body movie might keep their interest a little more (plus I had the little ones with me, so I needed to keep everybody's interest). I thought Hunter and Sauce would love it.

It was pretty interesting, I mean where else can you go inside a human heart, lung, stomach, intestine or ear? Much less in IMAX size. I noticed them covering their ears when we were in the heart (it was pretty loud and looked a little like a prop from a horror film), and Sauce's sensitive gut almost lost it when we saw undigested food hit the stomach, but again it was very unique and educational.

One of the underlying "storylines" (if even that) was a woman expecting her first child and she spoke of the feeling of the baby growing bigger in her belly and gave a brief overview of how the sperm swim their little tails off to get to the egg, of course showing each fifty gazillion times magnified. The film showed a sperm reaching the inside of the egg and the cells begin to multiply. At that moment, Sauce asked (loudly), "Mom, are those the baby's eyes?" No honey, that is the beginning of the baby.

Oh boy, I'm going to be answering some questions tonight!

I prepared myself as the film continued with a broad overview of changes in the body from babyhood, through puberty all the way until grey hair grows out of the ears of old men. They even had a discreet scene of childbirth (which is nothing new, my kids have seen "A Baby Story").

I've always believed that if children are old enough to ask a question, they're old enough to have an answer. So, I braced myself for the ride home.

"So, do you have any questions about the movie?" I asked as we pulled out of the parking garage.

"I do!" said Hunter.

gulp

"Mom, why didn't they tell us anything about snot?"

SNOT??? SNOT? All that potential to find out the secrets behind locked doors and he wants to know about snot. Hmmm. Oh well, that's a boy for you.

They seemed content to know that the movie was only about 45 minutes long and they couldn't possibly teach us about EVERY bodily function in that short amount of time (thank you Lord!).

OK, that was the funny part, but as we pulled into our neighborhood, both Hunter and Sauce were peppering me with questions about what happens to the sperm who don't make it to the egg, how does the sperm know where to go, etc.

And then, "Mom, how does the sperm from the daddy get into the mommy?"

Gulp. (santa claus? tooth fairy? easter bunny? stork?)

You'll have to check back to hear the conclusion of that conversation! (It might have started with, "Ask your dad.")