The age of reason

Madeline is at the age where she needs a reason for everything. She’s always asking “What does _____ mean?” It doesn’t matter if she already knows the answer, she just asks to see if you’ll give an alternate explanation or definition.

Because she’s so interested in knowing the whos and whats about everything, she’s pretty sure you’re interested too. Every other conversation I have with her involves a lengthy monologue about the relationships between the different members of our family – “I’m your daughter. And Emmett is your son! Because he’s my brother. And Dad is his father, because he’s my father too! And I’m Dad’s daughter! And you’re Emmett’s mom, ’cause you’re my mom too! And I’m a sister, ’cause Em is my brother!” She also wants everyone to know about all the things she can do because she’s 4 now – “I can button and zip up my pants now. I can even get my shirt on. I can do everything now! That’s why I’m 4!”

She’s really into jokes now, too. Except her idea of a joke is just a random statement – “Hey, do you want to hear a funny joke? Did you know that elephants don’t wear shoes? Isn’t that so silly?”

Here she is, pondering the mysteries of the universe after being informed that Easter is in two weeks. Not even kidding, this was the conversation – “What does two weeks mean? Is it like tomorrow? When does two weeks end? Is that like dinner time? What comes after dinner? What comes after tomorrow? What does Easter mean? Does the Easter bunny like eggs? Why does he leave eggs? And why do we want to find the eggs? Did you know there’s just eggs in the eggs we colored the other day? ‘Cause there was no candy inside them. That’s for the Easter bunny. Do you want to hear a really funny joke now? The Easter bunny lives in the forest with the other bunnies. And it’s a forest, ’cause that’s why I’m four! Isn’t that funny! Forest and four are both the same sound, ’cause I’M FOUR! That’s just so silly. But what does forest mean? It’s like all the trees. And what day is today? Is it Sunday? What day comes after Sunday? And what comes after Monday? And what comes after Tuesday? Did you know my hair is so crazy? Why is it crazy?”

Please send help.