inquisitive minds

last week, while eleanor and i talked about nothing in particular -- most likely which american girl we like most (i picked kit, eleanor chose felicity) or the scheduling of playdates or a much-anticipated girls-only trip to nyc -- the following exchange took place in our living room during quiet time -

eleanor: i've been thinking about something. it's a really hard question. i just can't think of an answer.

me: okay. let's hear it.

eleanor: if there has to be a woman and a man to grow a baby and a long, long time ago, when there were dinosaurs and there weren't any humans...

i can feel it coming, but i wait and it's so hard, letting her finish. it feels like it's taking forever until she finally finds just the right words.

eleanor: where did the first human come from?

me: that's a very good question. how smart of you to think of it! well, it's complicated, but let's see if i can help you.

and from here began our two hour long dialogue about evolution. evolution for just-turned five year olds. a five year old who knows the basics of human procreation, the life cycle, and scientific discovery. someone who calls bullshit on anything that smacks of anything too supernatural when she's looking for the real answer. a child who laughed when repeating some ridiculous story that a babysitter told her about angels bowling when it thunders. tickled that an adult would believe such nonsense and would repeat it to her.

so we talked and talked and talked some more. when i got to the part about our shared ancestor with the chimpanzee, she laughed: for real? yep. then she told me to prove it. so, i got online and found a basic "evolution of man" chart from a reliable education source, which we studied closely. she was fascinated and pulled anything relevant from her book case...human anatomy for children and the animal encyclopedia...feeling her face, my skull, our hands, feet, and tailbones. we talked about skull size and language development, the use of tools, why we don't eat fellow primates, and what happened to our tails.

her follow-up question to all of this was, of course, a killer: where did all of the animals and plants and insects come from? we talked the big bang, primordial ooze, the necessity of air, light, and water, single cell organisms, and the transition of water life to land life. i sketched. she had many, many good follow-ups. i sketched some more. she challenged me after each attempt at an answer. so finally, my friends, i punted. we really need to go to the library for this.

and we did.