The joy of learning is infectious, although as a parent I'm finding that it can spread more like SARS. Today on the ride home, the bigger wee man was asking his questions as usual.
Where is this?
Why is that?
What's going on there?
Can you see it?
I wish I remember the uncanny specificity of his queries, but generally battling rush hour traffic, suppressing road rage and negotiating the menu for dinner win out. Tonight though he had me stumped.
"Daddy?"
"Yes?"
"Why do we have hair?"
"Ummm, to keep our heads warm".
Maybe not accurate, maybe not original, but I was grasping. Let's be honest, when I'm on my game and don't know the answer I can usually turn it back on him. Yes, the old answer a question with a question trick.
"No! That's what hats are for".
Alright kid. Finish learning to read so I can tell you to go look it up.
Postscript
Well I did look it up, it's a bit faster now with that whole interweb thing, and this is kind of cool: The evolution of hairlessness helped to set the stage for the emergence of large brains and symbolic thought (thanks Scientific American).
Did you know though that almost all dinosaurs had some form of feathers?
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