Yes ladies and gents, we've reached the age of "why?".
"It's time for bed." "Why?" "Because it's already 8:30."
"You can't have that cheese because you just had a hot dog." "Why?" "Because that's not kosher."
"You can't jump on Sophie's head!" "Why?" "Um....REALLY?"
I know that kids naturally start asking this question around the age of 3 so Yaeli is pretty much right on time. However, I didn't think she'd be asking why in such a pointed way. The examples above show that she's not just asking why to be a pest. She really and truly wants to know the answers and I'm very impressed. It will be my challenge to make sure to answer her in a truly informative manner. If she's going to internalize it I need to make sure she's getting the right message. And she often internalizes it the first time we answer her. Well, except for the one about climbing/jumping/shoving her sister. She still likes to do that one a lot. Of course some things will need sugar coated, but you can't really expect a 3 year old to understand everything.
On the topic of speech, Sophie is beginning to say some words too. She's been saying Mama and Papa for a while. The other day she said "Hi Bob" to her uncle Bob (Baruch) and then walked away with her face on her hand saying some version of "oh my goodness gracious!" (my father in law, Papa, says that to the kids a lot and that was one of Yaeli's first phrases too). And just yesterday when I went to pick them up after work, Sophie came running over to me with a huge smile on her face, gave me a hug and said "hi Ta"! Oh it was just so yummy.
Oh my goodness gracious! Papa has such cute grand daughters!
ReplyDeleteFrom the series on parenting "How to Talk So Kids Will Listen...", an idea they had when a child asked, "why?" was to throw the question back at them; "why do you think?" Not in every case and circumstance, but it can be a useful tool some of the time.
ReplyDeleteWe actually have started doing that but at this point her answers are basically gibberish. We'll keep it up though.
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