Which Way Is The Mall?

Aubrey and Reagan 14 months old.

We spent the weekend at birthday parties for some special little people in our lives.

Any time we are in the car it is flooded with non-stop questions!

These moments happen to be during the brief moments Todd and I turn the radio off.

WHY do we turn off the radio? you ask.... ??

Well, we can only take so much of the Hannah Montana/ Miley Cyrus cd, sometimes we seek just a touch of silence. But, during our tween listening experience we repeatedily need to turn OFF the music to answer the little questions the seem so URGENT to ask above the already 'turn it up' volume level that has been requested. Flipping chaos I tell ya!!! Off, on, off, on, turn it up, turn it off I have a question.....boggles my mind that I can even drive in a contained auditory overload!

Not all of our responses are kicked back at us with the 'why' question anymore. It's a sequence of open ended questions THEY team up on us and ask. They (the questions) require more than a yes or no answer.

We can't just shut the door on thier thought process by simply answering with yes or no. Usually I try to answer thier questions matter of factly.

I used to get away with using the simple anser : 'magic' for those tough to answer questions that I don't feel they were really ready for the answer to. Like 'how did you make us, or how did we come out?' Well, they don't go for the 'magic' response anymore.

So, instead of drowning them in endless detailed responses that will only create MORE questions I see how far I can go with one, two, or three word answers, the door is open for conversation...and panic!!

On one URGENT run of questions Reagan presented us these:

Do you need a key for all cars? yes

How do you drive? steering and pedals

Which pedal makes the car go? the little one

Which pedal makes the car stop? the big one

Which way is the mall? it's the other way.......(WARNING!!!! WARNING!!! BEEP BEEP, BELLS, WHISTLES!!! ) RAY! Let's stop right there and talk about car safety!. This was a very direct response that was peppered with exclamation points and the rules, regulations, dangers, of cars!! Todd and I looked at each other bewildered and got right back into the dangers of cars! We made them repeat countless times to never get into the front seat! (which I've been adamant about since they could climb in themselves. It's been one of my biggest Danger speeches since day 1. No way is this a toy!!!) We know mama, we know mama...Can you put Hannah back on please?