"Why, Mama?"...

Ben is in a fascinating "smart" stage right now...let me explain what I mean first, then I will tell you about it. He (and just about all kids) go through various stages/cycles all the time. Sometimes it is a gross motor cycle, when all of the sudden I will realize that he can jump off the couch and land on two feet without help or fear, or a fine motor cycle when it will dawn on me that I am not helping him at all as he uses the toddler scissors to cut paper, and he is flawless at putting together great train tracks, or a "self-help" cycle where suddenly he can put his shoes on himself and can mostly dress and undress himself (mostly;).

But one of my favorite cycles is the "smart kid cycle" that he goes through from time to time. The interesting thing about Ben is that, right before he makes a big jump in cognitive skills, he stutters. It is like clockwork...all of the sudden I will notice that he is stuttering on and off throughout a couple of weeks, and then all of the sudden, the stutter is gone, and he is smarter/more verbally developed then before.

He has just finished a stuttering cycle, and has spent the last week completely inundating me with questions. And, his favorite question these days is "why?" Some examples: "Why is it called a fire truck?" "Why did they name Granny's street 'Briarhurst'?" "Why is Mack and Jelly (Mackind Avenue Deli) closed right now?" "Why did Nana and Papa go home?" "Why do we live on 'Devonshire'?"

And the cute thing is that he is only interested in hearing the "real" answer. He is not ok with me just making some quick response. He really wants to hear all about it, and wants to know what my best guess is, even if I don't actually know the real answer...like why Granny's street is named "briarhurst"!

Also, he is TOTALLY in to hearing "stories" right now. Every day I hear "Tell the story of ..." and he will reference any number of past experiences we have had. This weekend, Aaron's parents were in town, and Ben must have asked Papa to tell one particular story from his childhood about 25 times. Papa was so patient, and pretty much told the story 25 times! Aren't grandparents awesome!!