I've always taken pride in the fact that Caroline is interested in lots of things generally above her age level. But some of them are just so odd for a newly-5-year old that it makes me laugh....
Occasionally on our way home from school we will travel the back roads, which means along Route 832. This is a very rural area, with several old homes. Driving along one day, Caroline said, "Mom, STOP! What's that little house behind the big house?" I thought she meant the shed, but she said no, it's smaller than a shed. Since no one was driving behind me, I stopped to look. She had spotted a still-standing outhouse!
I had to mull about how to explain this on her level. So I said that a long time ago, before people knew how to build houses with water pipes inside the walls, they had to go outside to go to the bathroom. She was FLABBERGASTED to consider this - "you mean they went peepee outside?" with a tone of incredulity as if I had said Tom Cruise's religious beliefs make perfect sense. :) So I explained that yes, they had to go outside. I told her to think about the last time she called me in the middle of the night for company to walk down the hallway to the bathroom. She said she knew. I said to then imagine putting on her shoes, and her coat, and maybe a hat or gloves if it was cold outside, and tromping out to the backyard to go potty. I think there is some small part of her that actually didn't believe me! hahaha
So I decided to take this opportunity to introduce her to chapter books and told her that the next time we go to the library I'm going to get a book about a little girl who lived a long time ago and used outhouses - Laura Ingalls. ;-) And now whenever we drive up Route 832, she counts the outhouses along the way!
