William has officially reached the age of the annoying toddler questions. For him, it is not the ceaseless repetition of the word "why" as I remember from interaction with other children. At this point, he doesn't seem to have any grasp of the word "why." Instead, his question is completely related to his relationship with his sister. The question I hear far too often in an average day is "what does Anna want?" Generally, this question is asked when Anna is struggling with all her might to get to a toy William has left just out of her reach. When William poses the question the first time, I generally pick the obvious answer as the one to give. "She wants your
insert toy name here." Unfortunately, this has no effect on him. Instead, he responds to my answer by asking again, with identical inflection, "what does Anna want." So, I look harder. What answer am I not giving that would satisfy this child? I haven't found it yet. We spend what seems like hours every day with William demanding to know what Anna wants and me incapable of determining what it might be. Sometimes, for variety, William throws in the phrase "to see" at the end. "What does Anna want to see?" Invariably, I tell him that she wants to see something related to him. She wants to see him eat. She wants to see him play. She wants to see him take a stinkin' nap, darn it!!!!! He doesn't accept these answers any more readily. So, I guess we've entered a stage where William is realizing that Mommy doesn't know all the things he wants to know. Perhaps if I could just figure out what Anna really and truly wants as she's reaching for William's toys, we would all be happier here at home.
