It’s official. My daughter has entered the stage of asking “why” for everything.

Emily recently turned 3 years old and because she is so inquisitive and well-spoken, my husband and I were actually surprised this milestone of asking “Why” didn’t start earlier. (We were relieved, but not all that surprised that she never went through a “terrible twos” stage. If I do say so myself, we’re blessed that she’s so curious, kind, and intelligent!) Most of her why questions aren’t too bad. Things like, “Why do I need a fork?” Others are a little awkward: “Why does that man have a big belly?”

Oh dear.

And so here we are, not at all prepared to come up with reasonable explanations for all of our daughter’s “why” questions. While plenty of things make sense to us, the world is a curious thing to our Emily. Sometimes, it’s difficult to explain something complex to a toddler. Other times, I’ve been a bit impatient. On more than one occasion, I’ve resorted to the ever-popular-with-mommies reason of “Because I said so.”

Do you want to know Emily’s response?

“Well, why do you say so?”