Catch-up stories

A couple of our favorite questions lately..."what do moose say?" and "who is God?"

At the zoo recently Liam and I were visiting the cat house (to satisfy a recent obsession with big cats - specifically tigers, white tigers). We were peering into a cage and not having any luck finding the animal inside. I suggested we find the sign so we could see what animal was supposed to be in there. We found the picture and the label "coatimundi." I told Liam, "its a coat-i-mundi." Liam looked at me and said, "no Mommy, its a ka-wat-i." I looked the phonetic pronunciation and he was right! (Thank you Go Diego Go.) Later that night, we were telling Daddy about our trip to the zoo. Liam said, "we went to to the cat house and I had to tell Mommy it was a coati." (In case you're curious about the coati: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coati)

Mealtimes have become more of an ordeal lately with lots of bargaining and counting bites. I recently stole a strategy from another mom that, so far, has worked like a charm. It goes something like this: "Liam, you better not eat those (fill in the food). Those help you grow big and I don't want you to get big. I want you to stay a little baby!" Liam's response: "I'm not a baby, I'm getting bigger!" He then proceeds to take multiple bits of the "forbidden" food. He's even started scripting these little plays. Tonight he said, "Mommy say 'don't eat those green beans!'" After I play along, he then tells me to tell Daddy what he did so we all get in on the act.

A story by Liam (as relayed on the commute home with very little prompting from me):
"There's a pretend squirrel. He goes in the house. He jumps on the roof and hits the window - BANG! He is hungry and makes some dinner. He makes hot dogs and hamburgers."

Questions...

We have entered the "why" phase...fun but definately challenging (I am not smart enough for this!). I'll try to keep a record of some of our favorite questions.

Why do cars have exhaust pipes?
Why is the sun hot? Why is the sun made of fire?
Why don't plants poop?
Why do I have to do what you say? (Grrr...)
Why is it raining?

Many of our questions come up while reading books and have to do with the characters' behavior, actions, expressions or words. As in (in case you're a fan of Goodnight Gorilla), why is the gorilla looking at the mouse? Why is the mouse getting the string? Why are the animals in the house? Why is she taking the animals back to the zoo?

An 8 page board book turns into a 25 minute odyssey!

Stay tuned!

Inquiring Minds

We're getting lots and lots of questions these days. Liam has to know about everything! The other day we were driving behind a car with sporty dual exhaust pipes. Liam said, "That car is loud, Mommy. What are those things?" "They're exhaust pipes Liam." "Oh, yeah, exhaust pipes. What do they do, Mommy?" Uh.