Can I Pet the Eggs?

Oh man.  I can explain to a three year old what an egg is, where they come from, that baby birds, reptiles, dinosaurs, etc hatch from them... but how do you explain unfertilized eggs.

Lately, my daughter has been asking to PET the eggs at the grocery store.

"These eggs don't have babies in them.  They won't hatch.  They came out of chickens."

We had to have the "there are no baby chickens in these eggs" talk after we were at a friend's house (a friend who eats eggs, whose 3 year old daughter had eaten eggs for breakfast).  I heard from the other room,

"I don't eat eggs.  Baby chickens come out of eggs.  They hatch." 

I'm pretty sure I only complicated things by ordering vegan marshmallow chicks from Sweet and Sara and putting them in plastic eggs and then we ate the little chicks... A bit confusing.