Saturday, August 22, 2009

He Thinks, Therefore I Am (Insane)

I may have mentioned that Ethan has tripped head-first into the developmental phase of "Why?" I'm sure somewhere in the Twitterverse or on Facebook I've made not of it (ad nauseum).  But I don't think I've quite conveyed my point as to exactly how much the question "Why?" and the accompanying desire to understand the reasoning behind every. single. freaking. thing. under. the. sun has invaded our lives.   To say it has taken over our world and should probably be paying rent is really not an overstatement.  

If it was one "why?" every once in awhile, hell, that would be great!  Even a "why?" followed by "oh.  okay." and then we could move on with our lives until the next little moment of curiosity--awesome.  But Ethan seems to be keeping a mental tab of how many "why?"'s he can string together in one line of questioning.  Last week, for example. 

E:  Why are we driving daddy's car? 

Me:  Mommy's car is in the shop, bud. 

E:  Why? 

Me:  It has a boo-boo that needed to be fixed. 

E:  Why?  Why does it have a boo-boo?

Me:  Because someone bumped it, buddy. 

E:  Why? 

Me:  They were trying to park next to me and they bumped my car.  (this is when I start taking deep yoga breaths so as not to drive myself into a bridge abutment or the lovely Los Angeles River).

E:  Why? 

Me:  I guess they weren't paying attention.  (tapping my fingers on the steering wheel.  counting to ten.  remembering he's not really trying to make me completely insane.  right?)

E:  Why weren't they paying attention?  

Me:  Honey, I really don't know.  They just weren't.  And the car got a boo-boo and now it's being fixed!  So we're driving daddy's car and that's all there is to it!!!! (holding my breath, praying for silence.  oh, sweet sweet silence.)

Five seconds elapse...

E:  Mommy, why are we driving daddy's car?

GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

9 comments:

Sarah said...

OH MY GOD-- this is happening to me, too, and I want to cry!

After like 7 or 8 levels of why, I usually ask him what he thinks and sometimes this works. Sometimes, though, he says, "I don't know, Mommy. Why can't you figure it out?" and a whole new why game ensues.

Unknown said...

I have to wonder what causes this. I have three thoughts.

1) He is seeking knowledge and trying to put things into his reality of the world

2) He is experimenting with speech, but has only mastered the questioning side of it (ask HIM why!)

3) He is an evil mad scientist, with Pavlovian testing techniques regarding stimulus and response. "Remember, this is for science, so be honest". He doesn't have six fingers on one hand does he?

Someday, he will use his inside-his-head voice and keep you out of the conversation. It hasn't happened here yet, but one can dream.

Becca said...

Our variant is "What happened?"

Stop at a light, "What happened?" Slow down to avoid a pedestrian "What happened?" Say "darn it" "What happened?"

bang bang bang head on wall.

(The word verification I had to type in for this is "condom". Hahaha, I'm 12)

Anonymous said...

I can't stop laughing...at work we had "improvement groups" and were told to ask 5 whys to get to the real answer...obviously Ethan has taking this to a more intense level..but he is so cute...maybe he wants to be on tv as a crime investigator someday

lonek8 said...

we havn't gotten too far into "Why" yet, but I get a ton of "what are you doing." and because I'm an awesome mom I totally get impatient and say "what does it look like I'm doing?"

Anonymous said...

LOL. we haven't hit that, but i can understand it driving you insane!!!
xo
kita

Unknown said...

Jack has been in that phase for a while. When he asks repeated questions I finally reply "I don't know, why do you think?". Some of the answers are right, some are just really funny.

Crystal said...

We are SO right there with you! And when I finally get impatient and say, "Sweetie, I already answered you--please stop asking me that" she then turns that response back on me the next time I ask her a question. Sassy child.

Stephanie said...

Ha ha ha!

I swear, though, the best thing I ever did was to ask him the question after I'd answered it the first time.

It usually works!