What's That Called?

It's official -- I've entered into the question stage of parenting. We're not quite at the "why?" stage yet, but J.J. has developed a voracious appetite for inquiring about EVERYTHING around him. Some real examples:

- What's that J.J. called? (when looking at a picture of himself as an infant)
- How do you spell elephant? (along with questions, JJ is also now spelling simple 3-letter words, but doesn't quite get that "elephant" is too hard to spell out with our limited fridge magnet collection)
- Where are we going? (asked every 30 seconds on the 30-minute ride home from school -- every day)
- What does a hedgehog eat? (yes, these are actual questions, folks, and many times such as this, I've been stumped)
- What does 'question time' mean? (when I told him "question time is officially over" after answering the 627th question of the day)

I have to admit that while I'm so excited that J.J. is showing such interest in the world around him (he loved his first museum visit, as pictured above!), all of these questions are exhausting me. I start the day very patiently, trying to carefully craft explanations that his growing mind will comprehend, but then the questions start coming at rapid-fire speed and by the end of the day, I resort to "ask daddy" or worse, I pretend not to hear him at all.

Then I wonder, if maybe he's pulling a role reversal and quizzing me the way I do to him when I want to show off his smarts to family and friends. Yes -- that's it -- revenge for all the "Old MacDonald" and "A-B-C" performances I've made him do. What do you think? Is that possible? Maybe he's secretly recording my non-answers to mock me on YouTube with his friends at nursery school? Or, could it be I'm just losing my mind from all his inquiries?! And, If I can't answer him at age 3, how am I going to handle grammar school homework, or the birds and the bees?

It seems I've got some questions of my own (now I see where J.J. gets it from). Actually, they're more like the rhetorical ramblings of a woman who's coming to grips with the fact that she doesn't have all the answers after all. If you happen to know what hedgehogs eat, however, I'd love to know.