"The Talk"

 We've had another big milestone in our parenting lives.  Randy and I sat down with our oldest child and had "the talk".  You know, as in the birds and the bees.  But before I tell you how it all went down, let me first say that I put a lot of thought into it.  My parents forgot to have "the talk" with me, but sadly, I watched enough trashy 80's movies growing up to figure things out.  However,  I don't want my boys to figure things out on their own or get all their info from some kid on the bus, so I decided to be a little more proactive.   I found this awesome book and can't rave enough about it.
  The authors of the book say to talk to your child between the ages of seven and nine, depending on your child and where you live.  Every kid is different and I already know "the talk" will be different with each kid.  I can already imagine how Ethan will handle it since he thinks getting chased around by girls is the greatest, and doesn't understand why I told him kissing girls wasn't allowed.   I especially like this book because it has follow-up questions and discussions to have later on, at 14-16 years old.  I totally recommend it to everyone, even if you've already had "the talk".
Poor Marcus gets to be our guinea pig.  He handled the whole thing well, though.  We told him we had something awesome we wanted to talk about with just him, so we waited until the other boys were in bed, then we made some ice cream, and talked.  He looked like he was fighting the urge to cry and run from the room but hopefully one of his parents {ahem, Randy) will be a little less intense next time.