Origin of the species

The Setting: Downtown A train this morning
The Players: Myself, Charlotte (a friend/parent from the neighborhood), Charlotte's two daughters (aged 3 1/2 and 4 1/2), who are occasional playmates of my son (5).

Charlotte distributes pretzels to the cast.  Daughter1 looks at the pretzel and asks if this is how small she was when she was in her mommy's stomach.  A discussion ensues involving breaking the pretzel into ever smaller pieces and comparing the pieces to foetus/embryo/blastocyst/egg-sized daughters in mommy's tummy.  Charlotte then asks me whether I have had similar conversations with my son.  I say that I have. Indeed, he has gone so far as to ask not only where he came from, but where the first people came from.  Charlotte laughs, and daughter 2 then asks where the first people came from.  Charlotte, thinking she's got me on the ropes, suggests that I answer.  So, to the curious, this is where the first people came from (with help from the class).

The first people were fish.
No they weren't!
Yes they were.
No they weren't! You're kidding aren't you?
No, really the first people were fish. Some of the fish got tired of being fish, so they crawled out of the water and became alligators.
No they didn't!  Mommy, is he telling the truth?
Well, um, kind of
Yes, I'm telling the truth, the first people were fish who got tired of being fish, so they crawled out of the water and became alligators.  But some of the alligators got tired of being alligators so they decided to become dinosaurs.
NO THEY DIDN'T!!
Yes, really they did.  And then some of them got tired of being dinosaurs, so they became squirrels.
They did not!! Mom, did the dinosaurs become squirrels?
Um, well in a way ...
OK, so then the some of the squirrels got tired of being squirrels, so they decided to become monkeys, which are a lot like people.
They did not.  Monkeys aren't like people.
Monkeys look kind of like people don't they?
Um ... yeah ...
Well, they have hands like people don't they?  And two eyes in the fronts of their faces don't they?
Yeah.  But they have feet for hands, and hands for feet, so they're not people.
I know.  They also have tails.  Some of the monkeys decided they didn't want tails anymore so they got rid of their tails and became chimpanzees.
NO THEY DIDN'T!  Mom, did they really do that?  Did the monkeys become chimpanzees?
Um, sort of ...
Chimpanzees look a lot like people, don't they?
Yeah, they do (at this point, the daughters have stopped objecting and are looking at me like this is starting to make some sense)
OK, the chimpanzees got tired of being chimpanzees, so they decided to become people, and that's where the first people came from.
Really?  Did all of them do that?
No, not all of them.  Some of the chimpanzees decided to become people, but some of them decided to still be chimpanzees.  We call those Republicans.

Oh, here's my stop.  Gotta go.