Why?

Darwin’s newest word is ‘why?’ For whatever reason, I didn’t expect that to be coming on so early!

Last night we went for our evening walk (spurred on, as usual, by happy shrieks of ‘outSIDE!’). I was standing in the driveway with Darwin in her backpack, waiting for Leah to finish leashing the dog,when Darwin started asking for the moon. The night was clear and cold, and the stars were out, but no moon, so I told her that it was a new moon and that we couldn’t see it when it was new. She immediately said ‘why?’ I was floored! I went into a long explanation about how the light from the moon is actually reflected sunlight, and when the Earth is directly between the moon and the sun the sunlight is blocked. She kept asking why. Finally I pointed out Orion’s belt and she said ‘yeah-yeah!’

Apparently I’m going to have to start brushing up on my physical sciences earlier than I thought!