From bad to worse

I felt like the luckiest person in the world when Jonathon turned 4 years old and was still beautifully oblivious to that horrible word...'WHY?' But just when I thought I had dodged that bullet my adorable little niece came to visit and taught him the wonders of the word (Thank you Avalon). Since then it has become a staple in his vocabulary, sometimes I think he says it even without realizing it as he seems confused when I respond. After one particular day that was saturated with the word, I finally had enough. I asked Jonathon 'WHY do you always ask why?' Thinking that I would stump him and that would be the end of his relentless why-attack. He looked me straight in the eye and said with as much exasperation as a 4-year old can muster, 'Because, Mom, that is how I find out about things.' Touche...I had no response and he went back to his questions, which I now answered as completely as I could.

With all this frustration I thought there could not be anything worse than a constant stream of 'whys' everyday. But alas, I was wrong. What is worse than 'why' you ask...'WHAT IF'. Gone are the days that I could just look up the answer to his why questions and now we are immersed in the make-believe. Instead of 'why is the sky blue' I get 'what if the sky were green'. Instead of 'why does my finger hurt?' I get 'what if my finger fell off?' Somebody please tell me how you answer that one...