Not the question I expected to be stumbling around with...

So I figure at some point the whole issue of "where do babies come from" is going to arise and I'm sure I'll having a stumbling, fumbling answer. But as a preamble, tonight we got "where do elephants come from?" Sort of.

The boys got these woolly mammoth excavation kits for their birthdays. Essentially it's a plastic skeleton and select innards of a woolly mammoth. You put it in a mold, cover it with water and freeze. Then you use tools with warm water to excavate. They love them. Eddie told me that the woolly mammoth is his favorite ice age animal, better than even a saber tooth cat. So far, so good.

Then he asked how woolly mammoths turned into elephants. And thus began my attempt to explain evolution and natural selection to a couple of very intrigued 5-year-olds. They weren't letting me off the hook, either. They asked follow up questions about the evolution of humans and more. Frankly, I'd rather answer the whole sex question. And you can remind me of that when they ask it.