Keep in mind, this child is not yet three years old

Today in grandma's car, we passed a billboard with a picture of a saber-toothed tiger on it, advertising Natural Bridge Caverns. Then we hear this from the back seat:

"Why is that animal extinct? Why are they all gone? Why did they die? Why are there no baby saber-toothed tigers? Why didn't the saber-toothed tigers lay eggs so that they could hatch and baby saber-toothed tigers could come out?"

Things that go bump in the night

Ryan is a pretty fearless little dude. But he had his first real nightmare last night. He came to wake mommy up at 2:30 a.m., chin quivering: "Mommy. Wake up. A tractor crushed my toys." That must have been quite a dream. It took 20 minutes and two stories to get him back to sleep.

The night before, looking at picture books of animals, we started reading about a wolf. He looked up at me with his huge blue eyes full of fear and whispered, "Wolves blow down houses."

Why Oh Why

We're deep in the "why" phase now. Here's Ryan's side of a recent car conversation:

"Why is that skunk in the road? Is that skunk dead? Why is it dead? Why is it stinky? Why do skunks spray? Why do skunks spray Buddy? Why does he bark at the skunks? Do skunks have tails? Do skunks have bottoms? Do skunks poop? Why do they poop?"

... and so on, and so on.

Updated 7-16 with a sampling from another car ride:

"Did you buy this car? Why did you buy this car? Why do we need a car? Why do I have kneecaps? Did you run over that squirrel? Why are we going to Grandma's house? Why do you work? Why are all these cars driving on the road? Where are they going? Are they going to work? Are they going home? Where are their houses?"

And that was before we even got out of our own neighborhood.