Chocolate or Vanilla?

To settle the girls down a little bit at night, Sara and I usually read a couple books and we watch part of a movie.  The twins' favorites range from our home videos of their birth and them as babies in the hospital and at home, 101 Dalmatians, The Lion King, Tarzan, Babe, Beauty and the Beast, and Free Willy.

However, there are some nights that Sara and I pull rank and we say that Mommy and Daddy want to watch a movie because there is something that is on that we want to watch.  Usually that happens on Wednesday nights because it is Survivor and we have a fellow Random Lake resident on the show, Andrea, well she is on Redemption Island now, so we'll see if she can hang on to the end.

So we were watching Survivor and the girls cuddle up next to us on the couch with their snacks and water bottles and proceed to ask us oodles and oodles of questions....

"What is he doing mama?"
"Where is Andrea?"
"Is that Andrea?" (pointing to a different girl, directly after we just pointed Andrea out).
"Why are they doing that mama?"
"Where is Andrea?"

All questions are directed towards Sara, but I chime in now and then while stealing a pretzel when they're not looking.  However, even if I answer, they ask the same question to Sara for her answer, like I am an invalid or something!  But this is where there innocence comes in next.....

Sara was talking about Phillip (the former FBI agent who is annoying as can be), and says to me,  "Oh I can't stand that guy."  Ady and Riley both respond, "Who mama?" almost in unison.  So Sara points to the T.V. and Phillip was on the screen with Boston Rob and Riley says, "The Chocolate man mama?"......

Remember when I chime in from time to time, well, I decided to chime in.  First of all it totally caught me by surprise because where did she ever think to call a black man chocolate man, but at the same time I was amazed by her innocence.  She meant no disregard, disrespect, or insult whatsoever.  She just called it like she saw it.  And, the only thing I can come up with is that when we have ice cream we have chocolate or vanilla - so did she connect that to color of skin?  Wow - now that is deep.....

Back to the chiming in - so I tried to steer my daughter into correct/proper terminology by correcting her and saying - "Yup, the black man Riley, the black man, not the white man.  You can't say chocolate man, you need to say black man."  Riley responds with "O.K. daddy" and then she says, "Why daddy?, Why I can't say chocolate?"

YES!  MY DAUGHTER IS FINALLY ASKING ME A QUESTION!!!!!!!!!!  Wow, talk about a difficult one to have to explain it to a 3 and a 1/2 year old, while her older twin sister (by 4 mins.) is sitting on the other side of Sara listening very carefully. 

I look at Sara for help and she looks at me with a smile and says, "Yeah, daddy why?"  Thanks Sara!

I tried a couple of different ways to go about it and ended with, "Because."  We'll save that explanation when they're a little bit older....