Let the Interrogation Begin!

We -my daughter Mandy and I -live with a pair of investigators. Inquisitive is a mild term to use when describing Maya and Kurtis when they get on a roll. I don't know what would be a really great descriptive word for them, but let me tell you this much -when it comes to Q&A sessions, these two can go pretty much non-stop for a long, long time.

Mandy has decided that Maya may want to look into working as an FBI agent or CIA specialist in the future because when she begins to question you, she doesn't give an inch!

Take yesterday for an example.

Mandy had made an appointment for a job interview about 4:30 p.m. and as she got ready to leave, told the kids good-bye, the questions began.

Maya: "Where are you going?"
Mandy: "I have an appointment."
Maya: " Why?"
Mandy: "Because I do."
Maya: "Why?"

That's not all there was to the Q&A session but that's the general gist of it at any rate. Once Maya starts asking questions, she doesn't play "Twenty Questions" as she probably can go on and on for more like 200 questions, even if the bulk of her inquiries just amount to the one simple little word of "Why?"

We've all heard the phrase "Inquiring minds want to know" and brother, these two kids really do have about the most inquiring minds I've come across in a long, long time!

Last night at supper as we were dining on a gourmet feast of home-made macaroni and cheese, stewed tomatoes (to put over the mac n'cheese, of course) and fish -a meal that is generally one that is well accepted by both kids (with the exception of the stewed tomatoes), I was on a mission -again, or as usual -to try to get the kids to try a little bit of the stewed tomatoes on their beloved mac'n'cheese and all to no avail. Since I couldn't even get a toe hold in my logic being given to Maya about how good stewed tomatoes are alone, or especially on top of mac'n'cheese, I didn't even bother discussing the potential goodness of this item with Kurtis -a point that didn't go unnoticed by Maya either, I might add.

She obsesses about whether she and her brother are getting identical treatment ya know so she asked me if Kurtis had to try the stewed tomatoes too and I told her no, which of course, brought out the beginning "Why?" of this conversation. I then told her there was no point to trying to explain the goodness of stewed tomatoes to Kurtis right now because he was too young, too immature, ya know, to understand what I would be trying to explain to him.

All the while Maya and I were having this discussion, Kurtis was busy as all get out attacking his mac'n'cheese -which, for him as it is for his sister, has to be his most favorite of all food items, save chocolate milk!

Then all of a sudden, he stopped eating, looked and me and asked "Are you-ens talking about me?"

Yes, already at only 4 1/2 he has picked up the Pennsylvania jargon -"You-ens"!

Give me a break already!

I don't use that word, nor does Mandy and even Uncle Clate is also innocent in having that word as part of his vernacular so where did Kurtis hear that and thus, pick it up then?

I sure don't know the answer to that (maybe from his Dad????) but I do know this much and that is that Miss Kitty Strickland, my old 4th grade teacher, would be totally appalled if she were around to hear him say that!

She was one of those people who was an absolute stickler for grammar and the use of proper words -none of the "ain't" and heaven forbid, anyone in her hearing range ever used the word "hain't" too! She'd be ready to do a tar and feathering then, for sure!

So now, it looks like the vocabulary police will have to go into action around here to get these kids to using, as much as possible, the proper words for everything!

Oh, and in case you are wondering about Maya and her persistent "Why?" questions, what the standard answer to them usually is?

Of course, it's "Because" and occasionally that word also gets an addendum to it too -such as this, "Because I said so!" And that is often then followed by "End of discussion" or "Enough!"