Hey mommy! Whass datt??
When your almost 3yo won't accept the answer you've given him 852 times already, you get a bit creative.
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To say Lincoln is a ball of energy really doesn't even begin to give his gusto for life credit. From the moment he wakes up to about an hour and twelve minutes after we put him to sleep, he is nonstop. He is so full of joy, and has an abundance of curiosity. I know my mom started laughing the moment she read the title of this post...as she and my dad say "paybacks are Hell!" I was known for asking "why" endlessly and relentlessly. BUT, I look at myself now and know how many answers I have to other people's "why/how/what's" and I can credit my parents to not shutting my "why's" down, and instead, answering my barrage of questions as best they could for as long as I can remember. Yes, yes...we all have days where we just can't, and yet you still do the best you can, even on those days.
So here I am, as a mom with a child as curious about life as I was. And I'll tell you what. I. Am. So. Here. For. It! Sometimes I feel a little less here for it than others, but I dig down deep and do everything I can to answer his questions as best I can.
Lincoln has started not accepting the answers you give him...I'm not an expert in child development, but my observation is that he's much better at accepting an answer when he can tangibly work through it. "Mommy! Whass datt?" as he points to a cooking whisk. "Oh! That? This is a whisk, and we use it to mix things - kind of like a spoon. Want to give it a try? I'll show you!" And then we go through the steps of whisking and egg with a dash of milk, or some water with food dye. Then he understands - this thing is called a whisk and it mixes things and now I know how to do it myself - I have a physical experience that matches the answer to my question. Done!
He has difficulty now accepting answers at face value without an attached experience. Take this afternoon, for example. We were cleaning up after lunch and he was standing next to me at the sink. I was putting the remnants of the food into the sink and pushing them down into the garbage disposal. He's excited about the garbage disposal. It makes a loud noise - he knows that only mommy's or daddy's hands can go anywhere near it - and the food magically disappears. As I went through the routine today with him of pushing the food down, yelling "hands up!" and then turning the garbage disposal on, his questions didn't cease. They ramped up by about 127%.
Lincoln: Mommy! Whass datt???
Mommy: That's the garabage disposal! That's where our food goes.
L: Oh...whass datt???
M: That's the garbage disposal. You know that food goes down there, and only..
L: Mommy daddy hands. NO Lincoln!
M: Yup!
L: Mommy! Whass datt???
M: (getting creative now) Hmm...well Lincoln, that's the garbage disposal, and that's where our food goes. Remember, we flip the switch and then the food gets eaten up by the sink. There are teeth down there and we feed the sink because its hungry!
L: (verrrrry excited and leaning over the sink now) Mommy!!! Whass datttttt???
M: (really trying to figure out how to get this right...) Well Lincoln, our food goes down here. Let's look! (removing the rubber thing...the thing that separates your hands from the disposal...that you push food through...)
L: MOMMY! Whass DATTTT? (pointing to the rubber thing...oh god what is that called??)
M: Well Lincoln, this is what covers the garbage disposal. See! Now we can see it! OK check this out!
I grab an old lemon and put it in the garbage disposal
M: Lincoln! Hands up!! Watch watch watch!!!
I flip the switch and we both watch the lemon spin around and get chomped up by the disposal...
and now I'm thinking omg I've never seen the inside of a garbage disposal in action.
L: ... silence ...
M: Isn't that so cool! See! That's where our food goes! We put our old food down there and feed the sink!
L: (laughing) Whoa!!!
We just stand there in awe. And then we call daddy over to watch the demonstration again, now using an old tangerine.
I love the curiosity. It's also exhausting, and that's ok! Sometimes we get frustrated, I think we all get frustrated - Lincoln included - when we don't have an answer for him, or an answer that makes sense. I know I learn best when I can see something, or feel something, or smell, or just add that extra layer. Our physical senses are so directly related to learning and remembering. When I'm at my whits end, because lets face it, we are allllll human, I just try to dig a little bit deeper and try one last thing.
And NOW - I know that the rubber thing that separates the garbage disposal from human hands is called a splash guard. You're welcome.
