Cataloging

These days Isaac wants to classify everything, to sort it into categories, to define its parameters. I'm not sure if this is a typical toddler attempt to understand the world, or if he simply has a logical mind. (His parents are a scientist and a librarian, after all.)

Here are a few of Isaac's recent remarks, and a little background on them:

"Is this a plant or a weed?" (This is a question I'm always glad to hear, as he's been helping me pull weeds in the garden.)

"A tangerine is a citrus fruit." (That seems pretty self-explanatory.)

"Is Wilder a boy or a girl?" (His good friend Jasper just got a new baby brother.)

"Loader Driver must be a woman, because he wears make-up." (I am glad that he knows women can operate heavy machinery, and amused that his alter ego is sometimes female [but still uses a masculine pronoun], but I did explain that some men do wear make-up, and that not all women do.)

"Milk from Mama is a fluid!" (He sat up from nursing and made this announcement, clearly excited about his discovery, several weeks after the urgent care doctor had told us to give him plenty of fluids during his first bout of croup.)

"Luke has two daddies and no mama." (He found this upsetting at first, and he even suggested that Luke also had two mamas, but then I explained that Luke doesn't actually need a mama, having a perfectly good family that loves him.)

"Wool shirts have to go to the dry cleaners." (At first he said that plaid shirts have to go to the dry cleaners, but then Craig explained that not all of his plaid shirts are wool [although all of his wool shirts are plaid].)