Pregnancy and Teaching

I love my job.  I'm teaching kindergarten again this year (yay!) and these sweet five year olds are not shy about my pregnancy.  Some of them are very knowledgeable about this subject, like Brian, whose mom has TWO babies in her tummy--both boys!  He reassured me before we had the ultrasound, "Don't worry, Mrs. Harmon.  Its okay if you don't know.  They will tell you." 

Then there's Juan, who felt the need to tell the whole class how the baby would get OUT of my tummy...I hope none of my students were scarred for life.  (The rule now is that we let the doctors take care of that part and we don't worry about it at school.)

Other kids don't have as much background knowledge about pregnancy.  Little Sarah asked me, the day after she found out I'm pregnant, "Did you have that baby yet?"  When she heard that I had not, because the baby needs to grow more, she shook her head and said, "You better go to the doctor and get that thing out of you!"  The other kids helped by explaining that I have to get REALLY fat before the baby can get out.

My past students that are now in 5th grade have a much more mature take on things.  They want to know how many months along I am, what the gender the baby is, and in which hospital I will deliver.  And they were polite enough to wait until someone told them I'm expecting, instead of asking me about it when they noticed my stomach growing.  They didn't want to be wrong and seem rude.

So  I was confused yesterday when a fifth grade boy asked me in passing, "Mrs. Harmon, where's your baby?"  Knowing he has younger siblings and understands the long nature of pregnancy, I pointed to my belly and gave him a questioning look.  Resisting the urge to smile, the boy cried, "You ATE her???"  Then giggled and ran away. 

My first thought was to laugh that he set me up for such a line.  And my second thought was of pride...because this young man came to school four years ago speaking only Spanish...and now his English has developed enough for him to make a joke!  Using correct past tense!

My feelings may change in about 15 weeks when I'm waddling around the school ready to pop, but for now I love the extra fun that pregnancy is adding to my job.  Thanks for that, baby girl!