"Mama, Why do People..."

Ah yes, it's that fun age, the age of curiosity.

Jacob's new favorite game is "Mama, why do people ___________?" and then he fills in that blank with all sorts of various things.

Tonight, he was trying to battle me on bedtime. Remember my victory from "Day One"? Long gone. I have now lost the battle! It's 11 o'clock and Jacob is refusing to go to sleep. "But mama, I need to do my bedtime business," he proclaims. This is true. He does need to do his bedtime business. He puts on his p.j.'s, goes to the bathroom, brushes his teeth and washes his face. The funny thing about Jacob's bedtime business is that he has to do them in that order or he gets mad and insists we start over.

So as we were brushing our teeth tonight, I received this question "Mama, why do people have teeth?" This one was easy. I answered him as honestly as possible in a language a 4 year old could understand.

Next, we washed his face. He looked in the mirror to check out how handsome he was and then asked "Mama, why do people have hair?" I again, tried to answer this one although I don't really know why people have hair except that it just grows. After all, some people don't have hair. I told him this. So his next question, "Mama, why don't some people have hair?" "I guess some people just don't honey." I tell him. "Mama, why doesn't Daddy have hair?" he asks. "Daddy shaves his off." I tell him. "Mama," he starts. I finish for him "Daddy shaves his hair because that's just what he likes. O.k we are done now I tell him".

I guess I thought by getting him out of the bathroom he might stop the questions. I tuck him in bed and kiss him good night. "Mama, why do people need sleep?" I smile at him, kiss him again and say "People need sleep so that when they wake up in the morning they feel all better and have more energy to ask more questions". "O.k" he says. "Good night Mama, I'll have more questions in the morning."

He will. I know this to be true.