Why Oh Why

I noticed about a month ago that my son was asking "why" questions but was not yet using the word why. He created some rather convoluted syntax in order to ask his questions. Instead of asking, "Why did you say that to her?" he would ask, "What did she do that you said that?" I'm fascinated by language development and felt downright giddy every time he came up with something like that.

But then, of course, I started to wonder if he was on track or whether he should already know how to use why. I kept meaning to look up the age at which children begin to use why, but before I got around to it, I heard him use it for the first time. He'd been using it every now and again since.

And then last night during his sleep, his brain must have sounded the trumpet and called out to his mouth, "Release the WHY questions!" Today the whys have been endless. For the first couple hours, I found this new stage of development fascinating.

And then it just became annoying.