Mommy, why do we have a head?

While I was putting the girls to sleep one afternoon, Gabbie looked at me and asked, "Mommy, why do we have a head?" I had to have her repeat her question because it never occurred to me that she would ask such question at her age.

I put down my phone for a moment (I read my Yahoo mail while I put them to sleep) and looked at her, eye to eye. She was waiting for an answer and I was obviously buying time. I had to think of an appropriate answer. An answer that a four-year old can understand. Then I remember their lesson in Science few weeks back- about the parts of the body, and the head.

"Because the head holds our eyes, ears, nose, mouth and what else?"

"Hair, chin, cheek, eyebrows..." Sure she remembers her lessons well.

"So if we don't have a head, we will not have our eyes, and..." I intentionally didn't finish my sentence. I wanted her to think and be the one to tell the functions of the eyes.

"We can not see!"

"And if we don't have a head, we will not have our ears and..."

"We can not listen!"

"And if we don't have a head, we will not have our nose and..."

'We can not breathe!"

"And if we don't have a head, we will not have our mouth and..."

"We can not speak!"

"That's right. And inside our head there's brain."

"What is a brain?"

"The brain tells us what to do, it is what we use to think. So that in school, we know..."

"How to answer the exam!"

"That's right! That's why we have a head."

How can I not be proud I have a smart daughter?