Why?

Lately Sam has been asking a lot of questions.  At first, I was excited because it meant that he was trying to make sense of what the rest of us were talking about.  Where he used to be content to just listen or ignore us, now he asks questions about what we're talking about so that he knows what is going on.  Plus its just a cute growing up stage that I enjoy much more with the second child because I realize how fast he will grow up and not need to ask me everything anymore.

But often I feel inadequate when he starts asking me questions about what he's watching on TV.  Part of it is my fault - I tend to multitask when we're watching cartoons (I read my book while we watch the same episodes of Spongebob over and over - I like Spongebob but can only take so much), and then I don't know what he's asking because I didn't see the scene.  But the other problem is just that a lot of the scenes in cartoons just don't make sense, and he's not necessarily satisfied with that answer.  So instead of getting "Why?" over and over, I've decided to make up my own answers.  For example, "Why does Spongebob have salt shakers hanging over his table like lights?"  "So Patrick can reach them."  "Why does Gary the snail carry that bag with him when he runs away from home?"  "So he has extra clothes."  Then I get a "Mommy - snails don't wear clothes."  He's also starting to figure out that some scenes in Spongebob don't make sense in the underwater environment - like how can the roof collapse from a flood when they're already underwater.  So I'm resorting to "Its just pretend."  Which believe it or not, does actually work most of the time.