Why

Before having children I didn't realize firsts (words, steps, smiles) were not always obvious.  It seems silly to question a first smile, word, crawl, step until you witness one.  Or think you witness one.  The first smile is blamed on gas.  The first crawl looks something like a dying sea creature trying to beach itself.  The first word may resemble a word but only a little.  Theo is a lagging in his language acquisition but that's fine.   Gavin was the same and yet he knew most of the alphabet by his second birthday.  I'm not too concerned.  I like to hear Theo babble and I get all sorts of excited when he graces us with one of his words, "Buh buh" is bye.  Banana is something along the lines of yaya.  My favorite is Mamamama.  Ryan's is probably Dadadada.  I think he even tried to say dump truck but only managed to say duh truh.

So to see a first, or in our case tonight - a new stage, and to realize you are in fact watching a first is something quite spectacular. 

Here is how this new stage played out in our house tonight.

Ryan was in the kitchen getting his plate ready for dinner.  Theo was in his highchair eating broccoli with cheese sauce (with a ratio of 1:2, that's one part broccoli and 2 parts cheese and if the ratio switched to 2:1 it was quickly rejected), Gavin was doing his best to avoid trying the broccoli and cheese sauce, the salad, the cucumbers, just dinner in general.  It was late and he had toys to play with.

Between shoveling food into Theo and coaxing Gavin to sit down at the table I was inhaling my salmon.

***Tangent:  it was the BEST salmon I've ever had at home.   Yum.  YUM!  YUM!  King Salmon is delicious.  It is such a fatty fish.  Mmm..... fat.*** 

I told Gavin he needed to sit at the table.

"Why?"

"Because we are a family and we eat together."

"Why?"

"Because we love each other and like to spend time together."

"Why?"

"Because....."  I don't remember what I said but it was clearly not a satisfactory answer to Gavin because he asked, "Why?"

Then to make sure we were knew he wanted some answers he said, "Why, why, why?"

My mouth dropped open and I turned to look at Ryan in the kitchen who turning his head with his mouth agape to look at me. 

"It started!" 

Ryan has been dreading the "why" stage.  Well, it's here, baby.   Oh, boy is it ever here.