Almost on cue, after Steve’s Uncle Steve said to me “You know it is only a matter of time before ‘what’ turns to ‘why'” our sweet little vocabularian shifted gears and began the nightmare of the never-ending question.

“Hey Stella, let’s not dig for worms right now.”
“Why?”
“Well, because we should do it tomorrow instead.”
“Why?”
“Because the worms are better on Sundays.”
“Why?”
“Because they just are.”
“Why?”
“Just because!”

Stella’s expanding vocabulary has been a speeding freight train making stops at places like can’t-pronounce-L-ville, and get-my-pronouns-confused-land. For the last months, she has been busy in the info gathering stage where she wants to know what everything is, and hasn’t been all that interested in pondering the meaning of life. Now, however, she is single-handedly assuming the task of wearing out the word ‘why?’.

“Where’s Daddy?”
“He’s at work.”
“Why?”
“Because someone in this family has to earn a decent paycheck.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s not Mommy.”
“Why?”
“Don’t let Daddy hear you ask that question.”
“Why?”
“Because Mommy can’t read the online gossip pages if she has to work all day!”
“Why?”
“Isn’t that answer enough?”

And on and on it goes.

It’s hard to really know what she gleans from these conversations. They digress so quickly, and I shutter to think of what information she actually takes from each conversation, and Lord help me when she actually tries to recount one of these episodes to an outsider. There are just way too many facts involved in each of these interchanges, and let’s be perfectly honest here: Stella just isn’t all that proficient at spinning a coherent story just yet. Bottom line is that it’s just too darn early in the game for CPS to be called in on the grounds of bizzare and unusual behavior in the home.

Sadly, the reality is that it is only a matter of time. In just in the few minutes I have been sitting here writing this, Steve has had to explain to Stella the Why’s involved in accidentally squirting olive juice in his eye (don’t ask) and Why it is important that she doesn’t eat catfood.