"Why??"

I heard about this. Friends talked about it. Family members talked about it. I knew it was coming, but I thought I might avoid it. I didn't. It got me.

"Why?"

Never has one word so dominated a vocabulary, so moved a world, so charmed a little life. She soaks it all up. She wonders aloud, she craves information. A car is backing out of the parking lot at the supermarket: "why is that car driving mommy?" A woman is walking out of the store: "why is she walking there mommy?" She asks daddy "why" all the time, and sometimes he just doesn't know what to say. She and I were at Victoria's Secret the other day and I was carrying around a purple bra. "Why are you getting that mommy?" Because Daddy likes purple. "Why does daddy like purple?" We went to a cousin's house for a party a few weekends ago. As we were driving up the street to their house: "why are we going this way daddy?" Because this is where our cousins live. "Why do they live here?" Because this is where they bought a house. "Why?"

And so it goes.

Incredibly curious, incredibly smart. Then again, I'm her Mommy, so I'm biased. But she's smart.

And let's add cute to that. We got her hair cut on Sunday. A cute little pixie cut, which I think she loves. When I woke her up this morning, while she still had sleep in her eyes, she asked me what "today" was. I said, it was Monday, and when she asked "what day is that," I responded that it was a School Day. (Her world is dominated by "Swim Day" and "tumblebees day" and "camp day" and such). Her response, still with sleep in her eyes, as she stumbled around her room, was "I'm going to go to school today and show everyone my new hair cut."

Like I said, too cute, right? I may have the quote a little off, but that's the essence of what she said. Adorable.

So, here I sit, constantly engaged by the cutest little thing on the planet, wondering where I'm going to get the answers one minute and trying to hold in my pride and love the next, as she contantly surprises me. And so it goes. And she's only two and a half. I can't imagine what three will bring. But at least, hopefully, she will be potty trained. A mom can only hope.