Why ask why?

Tonight I am recalling the successful ad campaign “why ask why?” G has been in his new big kid class for two days… For two days he’s come to me when I pick him up and said, “I had a bad day.” It’s killing me. He misses Luci and Bertha his teachers from the two’s room. But his friends Brooks and Zachary gave him a very warm welcome Tuesday morning, so I am comforted by that… still, transition is hard. And some of the kids in this room are considerably older. Almost four and going on three are very different. Already I can see he’s learning a lot from the older kids. The word of today is “why?” Tomorrow it might be something choice like SH#*T, so I should be grateful I suppose.

Here’s a taste of turkey taco dinner with the Dionne’s tonight.

“Grant, sit down. Don’t stand in your chair.”

“Why, Mommy, me no stand on my chair?”

“Because it’s against the rules."

Sitting down slowly he says,"Why?"

"It's not safe.”

“Why?”

“Because you might fall down and hurt yourself. Plus, it’s not polite.”

Deeda adds, “You don’t see me or mommy standing in our chairs do you?”

“Why?”

“Grant, that's enough. Be a good boy.”

“Why be a good boy, Deeda?”

“Because if you are a good boy, and you don't stand in your chair, and you eat your dinner you may be lucky enough to get a Popsicle.”

(Now I am rolling my eyes at Deeda for the bribery- thinking the child has just gotten exactly what he wanted)

“Me have purple Popsicle?”

“Maybe. It’s a surprise,” Deeda says and smiles at me thinking we’ve dodged that bullet and then…

“Why?...”

And that’s just a sampling. The hits kept coming. Why, deeda, me no pee pee in bathtub? Why no watch more lightning mcqueen? Why brush my teeth? Oh boy!

Anytime we are in transition, from play to dinner, from dinner to bath, from bath to bed, from book to lullabies—we have stalling. Laying on the floor. Changing his mind 200 times. The stalling has been getting insane and now the child has a new tactic in his bag of tricks. The famous, infamous, "Why?"

I can hear the whole bit Bill Cosby does in his Himself show. Next thing we know, we'll be asking why did you drink my drink and his line will be I don't know. (You said for me not to drink your drink. Then, why did you do it? I don't know.... )

Anyway, we first attempted reasoning. Such a rookie mistake. And so we quickly learned the best way to end the interrogation and resorted to the classic, I never wanted to say because I hated to hear it as a child, “because I am I said so.” This doesn’t end the questioning but it doesn’t offer a new topic query either. It’s something.

The other favorite phrase these days is: “heeeeey, wait a minute!” A line of Mater's when he realizes it's not the Ghost Light. Speaking of Cars,he has two new additions to the box and hasn’t put them down since he got them. Tex and Dinoco Lightning are the hottest “fast race cars” in the box right now.

Singing is also in Vogue. “Our favorite song” as he calls it is, Happy Together by the Turtles. We heard it one evening on the radio about two weeks ago and he loved it from the first time he heard it. Easy to learn, long notes he can sing LOUD. So happy to-geth-eeeeeeeer!

Not so easy to learn but another fav is "Old Mc Farmy had a duck. E-I-E-I-O." He’s close. Of course Old McDonald had a Farm…and then the duck, but you get the point. I am laughing out loud just typing this one. It’s really funny!

My favorite phrase these days is “Hold me like baby. Never let me go.” This is one he says when we tuck him in to bed. A request I love to hear.