WHEREFORE?????

We've officially reached The Land of Wherefore, which is a fancy way of saying that from the moment he wakes until the moment he is sleeping, Alex asks, "Why?".  Who am I kidding?  He probably asks in his sleep but I'm just too deep of a sleeper to hear him talking.

This morning's conversation went something like this:

Alex:  Mommy, WHY do sharks have hearts?

Me:  Sharks have hearts because they need to pump blood through their bodies, just like we do.

Alex:  WHY do they pump blood through their bodies?

Me:  Sharks and us need to pump blood through our bodies to deliver oxygen and nutrients to all of our other organs, like our livers, stomachs, and our muscles.  We need the oxygen and nutrients to grow and be healthy.

Alex:  WHY is there oxygen in our blood?

Me:  When we breath air our lungs take the oxygen from it and put it into our blood.

Alex:  WHY?

Me:  Because we need the oxygen for our bodies to work.

Alex:  When we die do our bodies still work?   
Note rare departure from the WHY questioning format

Me:  No, honey.  When we die, our bodies stop working.  That's what dying is.

Alex:  WHY?

Me:  Because that's what dying is.

Alex:  WHY?


I could go on, but I think you know where this leads.

I think the thing that I find most challenging about the many many MANY questions (OH MY GOD, THE QUESTIONS) is that so many of the questions don't have answers, or answers that make sense, and no matter what the answer, the QUESTIONER IS NEVER APPEASED.

In other news, last week I took the children to the NJ Aquarium to get out of the house and enjoy the fish.  Alex is a huge fan of the fish, especially sharks.  The kid knows the names of more sharks than I ever knew existed before he became obsessed with them.

We arrived shortly before lunch time and proceed to make our way to his recent favorite exhibit where you can touch a shark.  He loves it.  It's a major change from last year, when he wouldn't even go near the area.

After touching many sharks and nearly falling into the shallow tank with them (due to Mommy's error and poor balance), I explained to Alex that we would need to take a break for lunch.  He was not a fan of the lunch break idea, and begrudgingly followed behind me pushing the stroller.  In the line to get our food, he was dancing around singing a made up song about sharks eating seals...in the line to pay he was  jumping around and pretending to be a shark (including growling at the cashier, who lacked a sense of humor).  As we proceeded to our table, he wandered off in the general direction of the large shark tunnel and tank, by far his favorite.  I parked Charlotte, walked quickly to retrieve him and sternly explained that he needed to eat before we did anything else, or we were headed home.

To which he responded, "BUT MOM (extra emphasis on the Mom), THIS IS MY LIFE!  I WANT TO BE A SHARK SCIENTIST."

And that, friends, is why I am quite certain that I birthed the most dramatic male on the planet.