Annie is still very into asking questions, but she’s stepped up her game. Instead of endlessly asking the same question over and over, i.e. “what’s dat sound?” she’s started asking follow-up questions. It’s so hilarious because she’s trying to have a conversation, and I can often see her mind working hard to think of another question so she can keep talking.

She really likes to know what’s happening at all times. She’ll follow me from room to room, questioning every move I make.

“Mama, what you doing?”

“Why you takin’ your clothes off?”

“Are you taking a shower ’cause you’re stinky?”

“Mama, are you clean now?”

“You gonna put on a diaper?”

“I’m gonna wear underwears when I go pee-pee in da potty, right?”

“What’s dat?”

“Is dat a new bra?”

“You gonna put it on your boobies?”

When I read her books now, she has to know the name of every single character on the page. Even the ones in the background that don’t have names. She will stop me every time I turn the page and said, “Who’s dat? Who’s dat?” while she points her finger at different characters. And, just to really up the difficulty level, she remembers the names I make up off the top of my head. So if one day I say that random fairy in the background is named Lucinda, you’d better believe that if I call her Dolly the next time I read the story Annie will protest vehemently.

To combat this, I’ve started naming things what they are. “Who’s dat?” “That’s Dog, honey. That’s Birdie. That’s Bumble Bee.” I can’t remember the names of people I met two minutes ago, so there’s no way I am going to remember made-up character names. A few nights ago, I decided to start playing her game, and as we read a book I started asking her to tell me who everyone was.

a witch, a ghost, a fireman, and a grampire.

On the page above, she moved her finger around randomly and said, “Dat’s a witch. She’s a girl. Dat’s a ghost. He’s…a boy. Dat doggie is a superhero.” Then she pointed to Spiderman. “Dat’s a fireman.” Her finger moved to the right, “Dat’s a bampire. He is a mean Bampa. He has black hair like daddy. He has popcorns! Daddy doesn’t have popcorns.”

I was laughing to myself, and then she said, “Mama, can I have popcorns?” “No honey.” “Why?” “Because it’s time for bed.” “Why?” “Because it’s bed time…”

And that was when Annie quickly moved into the dreaded “why” phase. Please tell me it’s a quick one.