Research

Let me tell you about a little moment I had with my children this morning. We were playing in Sly's room--and by playing I mean that I was sitting in the glider looking at my phone while the two little ones went to down pulling out every single toy in the vicinity, all to the musical symphony of my husband installing a ceiling fan in the room next door.

After a few minutes, I looked up from my phone to find that Kevin had claimed her throne (aka sat in the little chair that was once hers but now has been adopted by her little brother) and was "reading" one of Sly's books.

"Baby duck says 'quack,' baby puppy says 'ruff!'," she chanted as I smiled to myself, relieved that she still knew her animal noises (you know, in case they quiz you on that sort of thing when you start preschool). Soon she came to a picture of a baby giraffe.

"Momma? What sound does a giraffe make?" she asked.

My first thought was hold on a sec while I ask Siri...just kidding, I don't have an iphone. 

"I'm not sure, honey," I answered her. "Maybe they make a 'nom nom nom' sound when they eat the leaves."

"Giraffes eat leaves?" She reiterated, as if the idea was blowing her mind and she hadn't, in fact, seen a giraffe eat leaves on at least half a dozen visits to the zoo when she was two.

"Yes," I said. "That's why their necks are so long, so they can eat the leaves at the tops of the trees."

She nodded, gave me a skeptical look, and then went back to her book. A moment later she got up and walked out of the room, somewhat agitated. When she came back, she was holding a board book about jungle animals and their daddies. The first pages just happened to feature a giraffe and its father, go figure, eating leaves.

"You're right mom! They do eat leaves!" She said with a little laugh, amazed that I was correct.

And thus it began.
My daughter is no longer "taking my word for it."
She's doing her own research.

And just maybe, this experience has taught me not to roll my eyes every time she asks the question, "Why? But why? Why? Why, Momma?"

Why, indeed.
She's starting to figure out that I don't know all the answers.

Why do you have to grow up so fast, little one?

Yes, but why?