What's This? What's This?

I have yet to reach the “Why?” stage with my 2-year-old son Ryan, but I can tell that it’s on its way, because the stage he has reached is the “What’s this?” stage, with its substage, the “What’s that noise?” stage. Luckily, I am rewarded by his then walking around the house announcing to himself what everything is, so at least I know he’s listening to the answers I give him. The other night he must have spent at least 15 minutes just walking around the playroom pointing at everything in sight and solemnly reciting, “That’s a table. That’s a chair. That’s a toy snowplow. That’s Katie’s exersaucer. That’s the couch. That’s a puzzle. That’s my book. That’s Mama’s shoes.” And now he’s reached an even better stage of announcing to his baby sister Katie what everything is.

At nearly 5 months old, Katie is at the stage where she is utterly fascinated by people, and her big brother is no exception. In fact, she seems to find him more fascinating than anyone else in the whole world. I sometimes put her in her bouncer or her exersaucer while Ryan is playing in the same room, and she doesn’t take her eyes off him for a minute. And if he should happen to glance her way, she gives him a big grin that could melt an iceberg. He hasn’t interacted with her directly all that much up to now, other than to offer her a toy when she cries, but the other day he was watching his favorite truck video while she was in her bouncer, and he began pointing at the screen and telling her, “Katie, that’s a backhoe. Katie, that’s a school bus. Katie, that’s a monster truck. Katie, that’s an articulated front-end loader.” And she was staring at him in rapt adoration.

I love it when I hear Ryan explaining something so I can hear exactly how he sees the world. And having Katie around for him to explain things to will open a window for me on how his mind works, what he understands, and what is important and interesting to him. So I’m actually starting to look forward to the “Why?” stage, simply because I can’t wait to hear how he’ll pass all the answers on to her in his own unique style.