This past week, Jack learned how to ask that all important question: “Why?”

I was in New York all week, and when I got home on Friday, I woke up with Jack and Grayson. To kill some time that morning before I drove over to the new house to deal with our crappy “cheap” contractors, I took Grayson and Jack for a walk in the two-seat stroller.

At some point on the walk, Jack asked me about the trees in one of the neighbor’s yard. Then he asked me “why do trees grow?”

I said something like “because they grow when the sun hits them?”

Jack said “why does the sun hit them?”

I said “well, it doesn’t hit them, but it’s rays do, and they make the tree grow.”

Jack said “why does the tree grow?”

I replied something like “because that’s how God made it work?”

To which he replied “oh”.

A few seconds later he said “Daddy, why did God do that?”

I then realized that my kid had learned the most important question in the world:

“Why?”

Jack is full of wonder, and he is wonderful.

So, it’s Sunday as I type this and Jack has pretty much asked “why” about a thousand times. I think Christine and I are answering his every why with as good an answer as we can come up with at the time… and all the while I’m thinking “we have to buy a set of encyclopedias for this kid”.

I’ve had the urge to answer “because I said so” about 999 times, but have refrained. I’ve also wanted to say “because we have faith, son” but have stuck with “because that’s how God made it work” because I’m not sure he’ll get “faith” yet…

My mom has always told me that I asked “why” about a million times a month when I was a kid. If these last three days are any indication, I totally understand now.

“Why?”