The Question

We know that there are as many different paths to acquiring English as there are speakers. Along the way, C. was an enthusiastic reduplicater, (maymay for raisin or airplane, didi for cd, etc.) and he went so far to avoid making the "y" sounds that he said es for yes, and orange for yellow. Of course, we are all enjoying the typical over-production of -ed verbs: goed, builded, doed. Another stage I had heard about, and looked forward to (It will be great! I will be patient; I'll get to explain so much to him!) is upon us. All preschoolers seem to converge on one key point, whatever path they are on: the "Why?" stage. Now I know from experience, as cool as it is that he is curious, it gets old fast. For example, he asked us why it was dark outside. Russ pulled out a globe and a flashlight, and gave a full mini-lecture: the rotation of the earth, the concept of a day, the whole deal. When he was done "...So that, C., is why it is dark outside," all he got for thanks was, naturally, "Why?"