Duck, Duck, Goose

 Since the kids are so into imitating animal sounds, we thought they'd love to visit the ducks at the park. Rodney thought we should bring some bread so the kids could get the full park effect. I was a little worried that food and aggressive ducks could be a bad combination, but I kept quiet.

When we got there, Ethan made it pretty clear that I was not to touch him, that he would be wandering free--thank you very much. He and Emma made a bee-line as fast as they could straight for the pond. I almost had a heart attack. Swimming lessons are now high-priority. They must've thought they could just walk on water and simply go get those ducks.  The park was packed and the ducks weren't hungry at all. I guess they'd probably been eating bread crumbs all day. Probably just as well. Emma and Ethan make the funniest duck sounds from the back of their throats: "kah-kah," which is pretty much their same sound for pigs.

So park geese aren't very friendly. Surprise, surprise. I don't know much about goose temperament, but for these geese, I think it's probably from all the years of torture from the children of Muskogee. A couple of little boys were harassing one goose and her egg. She was very angry, rightly so. The boys were so proud of themselves for finding the egg and chasing the goose. I'm sure the egg will never hatch now that it's been violated by little Lewis and Clark here. It made me sad inside to see that. Poor momma goose. Emma and Ethan of course were oblivious to her loss and kept happily trying to march right up to her. I guess they expected her to act just like our dog, Daisy, when approached. Her wings were pulled back in full display and she looked like she would charge. We kept diverting them and holding them back. Emma and Ethan were absolutely livid.

This park day was not turning out like we had imagined. We would've taken them to the playground, but there were so many other kids there, so we just wandered around in the picnic area and, after they got over the whole pond restriction thing, it seemed to be fine with them. Emma was very interested in the strange tree roots we have at Honor Heights, the ones that come straight up from the ground like weird emerging mutants. They remind me of those cave formations I've seen on The Discovery Channel. Ethan loved the tiny flowers and clovers that grow in the grass: "Fla-fla."
"Yep, flowers! Good job, baby." So smart.

Rodney played peek-a-boo with them around the big tree trunks and they loved it. They screamed with big smiles on their faces and ran around in circles. Emma's signature move ever since she could walk is leaning slightly forward with her arms out behind her like a diving bird. It's pretty cute. She smiles with her chin out, eyes closed. Sweet little Em-Lynny-Lou.

After we thought they had run most of their energy out, we carried them on our shoulders back to the car. They were asleep before we were out of the park.