The Animals Are Running the Menagerie!

Today turns out to be de facto "Petting Zoo Day" at our ranch, for better or worse (I'll let you guess which). I cleaned the bunny's cage and the guinea pig's cage, and we declared a general furlough for both creatures, and they ran around and got all kinds of well-intended, if "unwanted" attention from all three of the children. Then Ian brought off the shelf the vase [yes] containing our miniature aquatic frogs [I'm not making this up. As I was preparing Chicken Nuggets for the lads in the kitchen, I heard Daniel say something about "my frog," and jumped to the horrific, yet, of course, correct conclusion that he must have a one-inch-long frog in his little preschooler hand. It turned out that Ian had the other in his hand, and I urged them to return their respective frogs to vase-sweet-vase at once.

Neither of them saw any immediate sense in my directive, so I explained to them that tiny frogs can easily get hurt out of their vase, especially if someone were to squeeze them or drop them (inadvertently). During my irrational discourse, a miniature frog went flying out of Daniel's hand, and I told the boys that that was exactly what I was trying to avoid. Ian said, "But can't we hold them just a little?" and as I was explaining that this frog-dropping thing could happen again, young Sunglasses again flew out of Daniel's hand. [Yes, Daniel's Frog is "Sunglasses"; Ian's is "Swimmy". It should be pretty obvious that they each named their own frog. I don't know how they tell them apart, but they know which one belongs to whom.]

So as I saw Sunglasses hit the floor a second time, I was extra-exaserpated, and I yelped, "That's exactly what I'm talking about!!"

At that point, Daniel had the good sense to set the record straight, with a statement to the effect of, "But Daddy, he did it himself!" Ian corroborated, with the little-known insight that frogs have a tendency to jump.

At that point, I understood how completely unfounded I was, in my feeling that a preschooler shouldn't be trusted to hold a miniature frog.

(February 26, 2011)