Why

Avey’s been extremely curious for the past few weeks. This is evidenced by her favorite word lately: “why.” It doesn’t seem to matter what we’re doing or where, she wants to know the purpose behind everything. For example, while reading a book with Kira the other day, Avey asked why there was a particular character drawn on the page, why he was dressed the way he was, why he had that particular facial expression, why he wasn’t on the next page, and so on. If we try to plant her in front of a short show to keep her occupied for a few minutes, she will continue to barrage us with questions about the show, the characters’ intentions, their choice of hairstyles, their accents, their choice of phrasing, etc. We try to answer, as we understand that she is attempting to put together the pieces of this puzzle that is life, but after several hours it can get exhausting.

We’re sure that this is just a phase that all children go through around this age. I’ve found it disconcerting, however, to find that I often don’t know the answers to her questions. She asked me last night why we call a particular fruit “apple.” I had no idea, but she seemed satisfied with the answer that it is because they come from an “apple tree.” While most of her questions have logical answers, such as why we take baths or why we sleep at night, some of her other questions have me wondering about things we take for granted. Why do I wear a tie to work? I guess somebody thought it looked nice a long time ago. Why do green lights mean “go?” I guess somebody decided so and we all agreed. Why do we have a white car? Because that’s what color it is.

Even though her constant questioning of social norms can get annoying at times, I’m pretty sure that’s the method most stand-up comedians use these days. She just needs a clever way to line them up. Maybe instead of just asking “why,” we can work on getting her to say, “What’s the deal with…” That would at least be pretty funny.

#LittleGems