Why you do that?

Anne has gotten into the question asking phase of her development, and it is great to see her grow. I love that she is not merely asking "why", but slightly more elaborate questions like "Why you do that?" or "What you mean?" or "What you doing?".

We recently had a mouse in the house, and I set a large number of traps to catch the little critter. Mommie and I had talked to Anne about mice, describing them as little and fury (but fast!). Anne wanted to befriend the little guy (without having seen him). One morning I found that a trap had scored, and tossed the rodent in the trash. When Annie woke up, I mentioned that the mouse was gone, and she asked where it was. Weighing the pros and cons of how to deal with pests and death, I decided to go for broke and give her the facts. I explained that although mice are cute and cuddly looking, they destroy things and leave a big mess without cleaning up. We prefer that the mouse simply walk out the door on his own, but they never do. I got the mouse out of the garbage so she could look at it. I made it clear that the mouse was dead. She made some observations about it ("fury" and "claws"), then in a very concerned and almost constrained sort of way, asked "why you do that, Daddy?" On the one hand, it is quite an experience to see such a young mind connect the dots like that. But it is also sad to realize that eventually they have to deal with unpleasant topics. I much rather they are exposed to such topics in a controlled environment, and I think this was a good object lesson.

In other news, we had a most excellent time this weekend; watching a soccer game in freezing temperatures (well, not really, but it was stinking cold), watching bands practice, going out to the Decatur "Boo at the Zoo". I think Heather wants to say more about that, so I will leave that open for now.