Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Joys of raising a boy.

When I found out I was pregnant with Grayson, I was excited to be having a boy. "Now I'll have one of each," I thought. I was a little worried about caring for a baby with a penis though. I had no experience with that. I'd never babysat a baby boy, and I knew there were going to be things I couldn't explain from a personal perspective to this little man of mine.


In his infant years, I remember changing Grayson's poopy diapers and being amazed at all the places the poop could settle. I really had no idea there were so many folds and crevices on a male scrotum. I guess I never really paid attention to it before. But really? I had no reason to.


I remember the first time I saw his morning infant erection. I like to call it his "baby-wood." (I'm horrible, I know.) It sorta freaked me out. I didn't think he could do that at such an early age.


I've tried to ask Brady about certain things, and he's no help. I don't know if he's uncomfortable talking about this stuff, or what. He never urinates in front of Grayson, and so the poor kid really has no idea about the whole "stand to pee" thing.



A few weeks ago, we were at my parent's house. My nephew and niece were there too. I was changing my nephew's diaper and Grayson was watching with interest. It has only been recent that Grayson has realized his pee-pee is different from Ella's. He's starting to discover himself more. I hadn't realized that since this new "discovery" that he hasn't seen another penis. A few days after he saw me change that diaper, he said something that took me a few seconds to figure out.



I was changing Grayson's diaper. He sat up and was touching his penis. He said, "I have it like Lucian." He was saying that he and Lucian have the same parts. I told him "Yes! You and Lucian both have the same pee-pee! Good job." I was excited that he noticed the similarity.


There have been a few times where he is sitting on the potty before bath-time, and after peeing, he pulls on his penis and looks at the head. "Yuck!" he says. Poor kid.



About a week ago, I had him on the potty in the morning. He had a dry diaper when he woke up, and I wanted to take advantage. It was cold in the bathroom, and I wasn't prepared for what I was going to see.



I was squatted in front of Grayson to make sure there was no random flying pee, and while I watched, I saw shrinkage in action. It was crazy. I could actually see one testicle move inside the scrotum, and then the other one. They pulled up close to his body and then the skin surrounding them shrank so quickly I would have missed it if I'd have blinked. I'd never seen this happen before. I knew it did, but I'd never witnessed it.



Apparently it scared Grayson. He looked at me and with a very worried voice he said, "Momma, what happened to my belly?" I touched his belly and said, "Here?" "No, there" he said as he touched his penis. "It's ok," I told him. I had no idea how to explain what we both just witnessed to an almost 3 year-old.



I know as Grayson gets bigger there will be more questions that I won't be able to answer. I just hope that my husband gets over his feelings of awkwardness for talking to the boy about these things. I certainly can't explain how things are supposed to happen or feel.

3 comments:

Quigs78 said...

Wow. That was very...detailed. :P

I've never seen that happen! But I do make sure that N is involved with all of our penis conversations, and we have an open-door policy as far as kids in the bathroom - whether he likes it or not. ;)

But Bubba just told me the other day that he doesn't want a penis anymore...he wants a vagina like Mom and PG. I can't imagine how confused their little brains are.

makeup_girl said...

Perhaps I should have put a disclaimer on this post! :)

Jules AF said...

I laughed really hard at the "caring for a baby with a penis" part. I don't know why. It just struck me as hilarious.