Chanler and I have recently had some very interesting conversations while driving (mostly home.)

Today: While I was trying to talk about what Chanler was going to have for lunch (to prep him for actually wanting that - this tactic seems to help); Chanler decided to be silly and said he didn't want to eat lunch he was going to "eat grass . . . [pause] noooo that's silly"; "eat tree . . . [pause] nooo that's silly." This went on for a few blocks with me mostly just listening to all the things Chanler would eat (other than lunch - grass, trees, leaves, cars, buses, anything he saw out the window). Then came the laugh out loud moment.

C: Eat the red light
J: But if you eat the red light how will I know when to stop?
C: You hang me from the light? I'll swing . . . I want to swing.
J: at this point I was laughing so hard I almost had to stop driving.

Yesterday: While on the way home from Art class, we discussed Creation (i.e. Why the sun goes down and comes up - because that is the way God made it), Morality (i.e. why we should act kindly to others even when they tried to take a toy away from us), Impulse control (i.e. why said child tried to take the toy from Chanler), Etc. My favorite conclusion by Chanler (during the creation discussion) was that God made the Sun to come up each day so people could do things - to which Chanler said . . . "Jesus said go to art class."

Sometimes you just have to say well kinda, and wonder how their brains work.

I have been waiting for the "why shoe" to drop for months now. Many of Chanler's friends have been driving their parents nuts with this one forever it seems. Well it has finally happened. The funny thing is that it crept up on me. I didn't realize he was actually doing it until Scott pointed out how many of his questions were "why" related. Of course after that insight, the number of questions in the "why spiral" has increased to the point that I think I would have noticed it on my own (especially in the last 1-2 weeks).

On the good side
1)Chanler's why questions are in the form of full sentences - so you at least know what he is asking about.
2) There are a few (very few) answers that will stop him in his tracks. These include "Because God made it that way," "Because the clock says so," and not as effectively "I don't know why."

On the bad side:
1) EVERYTHING is why right now. For example tonight we had to return a broken lamp to the store. The whys ranged from Why are we going?, Why is the lamp in the car?, Why is the lamp broken?, to Why does the lamp turn off?
2) Once a why is asked - it WILL be asked over and over and over. From above. We discussed "why the lamp is broken" at least 5 times on the short drive to the store.
3) Once a why is answered - there will be another why!
4) Chanler hasn't figured out that there are something which just are because they are. For example "why is it Wednesday" has no really good answer. It has answers, but none of them seem to satisfy him. (i.e. "because it is the day after Tuesday" leads to "why is it the day after Tuesday" which leads to ??? I don't know - social convention or a long explanation of Norse mythology)
5) Circular explanations. I can't remember my example, but I know I actually said something to Chanler along the lines of - do you see how we can never figure this out . . . we just keep going back and forth.

I know this is "just a phase" and it could be MUCH worse, but right now it is driving me up the wall! I have heard it said that Women need to use more words each day than men (in general), but lately I am running out of not only words, but the ability to listen to any more words. Poor Scott just isn't allowed to talk when he gets home :-p