Many New Questions

Claire has started to ask some rather interesting questions about the world.

For example, you may recall that she likes to pretend to be working at a fast food drive-through, sticking her head out and saying, "You want a combo? You want cheese?" It still cracks us up. Lately, she has extended this game to sit-down dining, holding a notepad and crayon in hand, saying, "You want bar-b-que? You want Diet Coke?" Anyways, the other night at dinner Claire said, "Combo? What's that? I've never seen a combo." It must seem funny to her. Every time you ask for a combo, you get a hamburger, fries, and a drink instead. But what the heck is a combo? It must be some kind of food. Does it taste good?

Claire also noted recently that she has never seen a dinosaur. This is a pretty remarkable observation. She has seen most of the other animals we talk about, at least at the zoo or the aqauarium. She has seen elephants, lions, meerkats, whales, sharks, birds, and countless other fun animals. But what is with these reclusive dinosaurs? There is no dinosaur display at the zoo. I told her that is good because they are awfully big and fast and scary, to which she agreed, "Yeah!" and did a big roar sound. I also told her they have a dinosaur skeleton on display at the airport, but that did not especially interest her.

She also seems to be grappling with the seemingly arbitrary distinction between girls and boys. This topic came up during dinner when her school friend Nathan was mentioned as being a boy. "Girls and boys. What's that? That's silly!" This one I could not readily explain other than to say that they're all just kids. But she has a good point. Why do you have to specify someone's gender every time? You might as well use different words for kids with different colored hair.

It is a strange and confusing world indeed.