On an average day, my daughter’s question-to-declarative sentence ratio clocks in at a healthy 5:1. In this section of the blog, I explore what happens when instead of saying “I don’t know,” I say “Let’s find out!”
Despite my best effort, The Four-Year-Old’s unanswered question index keeps getting longer. I’m at 137 and counting. In today’s post, I tackle her questions about pigs in space, duck tongues, mosquito hearts, and ancient butterflies.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was paralyzed from the waist down from the time he was 39, so used a wheelchair in private settings. He felt his disability was a disadvantage for his political career, however, so trained himself to walk using a cane and iron braces. Only 3 pictures of him in a wheelchair exist.
For reasons that are lost in the dustbin of my memory, The Four-Year-Old became intensely interested in wheelchairs about a month or two ago. “When did they invent wheelchairs, Mommyo?”
In the midst of adding one of two planned cameras to her LEGO-scale model of the Mars Rover Curiosity, The Four-Year-Old paused to ask, “How many cameras are on the Curiosity?”
Overheard in the playroom. The Four-Year-Old: “Daddyo, do white blood cells have white blood in them?” Daddyo: “No. Blood is made up of cells. Cells aren’t…
While we were munching on chips and salsa other day at Chili’s, The Four-Year-Old’s eye was caught by a picture of a man with a long white beard and long white hair wearing a glittering sombrero and dark sunglasses.
The Four-Year-Old: “Mommyo, is that Santa Claus on vacation?”
As part of her Mars Rover Curiosity Liftoff Celebration, The Four-Year-Old built a satellite launch pad out of Legos, with only a few targeted assists from her parents. While hard at work on the cargo truck, The Four-Year-Old paused long enough to ask, “Mommyo, how long do satellites stay in the air?”
The Four-Year-Old, from the backseat of the car: “Mommyo, are elves real?” Mother, distracted by all the crazy drivers on the Thanksgiving weekend roads: “No.” The…
Foiled in her attempt to make chicken nuggets the centerpiece of our Thanksgiving table, my frustrated four-year-old daughter naturally wanted to know: “Why is turkey such a popular dish at Thanksgiving?” Turns out you can read 15 articles on the topic and encounter the same 4 theories. But you don’t have to, because I did. Here’s why so many Americans still eat turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.
One day while coming home from a nature class in a local bird sanctuary, my four-year-old’s mind had a question: “Mommyo, why are girl mosquitoes silent, but boy mosquitos buzz?” Turns out that’s not quite how mosquitoes work.
CATERPICKLES 