Nikola and Too Many Monkeys

[brigid]

In Watership Down, there is a character named Fiver because he was the runt of a large litter and rabbits can only count to 4. Everything more than 4 is “fiver” or “a lot.”

Niko can reliably count objects up to 3. Sometimes he can count 4 objects, other times he gets up to 3 and then kind of wanders off. Everything more than that is “too many.”

His totally awesome baby sitter took him to the zoo yesterday, and when I got home, I heard all about it. How he rode the train! With Waldo! On the train! And a bus! To the zoo! He told me about seeing chickens, which were red and said “bok bok” and a cow which was white and said “mooooo” and he saw meerkats and they went UP. Where did they come up from? A TUNNEL. Also there were monkeys. How many monkeys? TOO MANY!

I read Watership Down about every year. It’s a great book, and I really love it. So I was super thrilled when Nesko casually commented that “at least Niko can count as well as a bunny,” because I wasn’t aware he’d really read the book or retained much of it when he DID read it. And it’s true. Niko counts about as well as a bunny.

How has YOUR week been?

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Comments

[waldo]

We saw red chickens? Really? I remember the geese and the ducks but um... hm...

But the cows did Moo. A lot. Just for him. And yes, there were too many monkeys. Heck, there were too many monkeys (if more than 3 = too many) in each of the 6 or 7 habitats we stopped at. :) And the meerkats did go up from the tunnel (which has an awesome gash in it so we can watch them go up.

Did he tell you about the white bear that swam and blew bubbles? That was pretty fun too.

Also? Your two year old? 3000% more polite/well behaved/fun to be with than ANY one of the walking disasters I had to deal with today. And they were between 3 and 5.

[brigid]

hahahahahahaha! Nesko suspected the cow did not exist and was just a "yes" and some padding to a leading question. We did not question the red hens!

I'm glad he's well behaved. That's one of my goals, to have a child with acceptable public (and, for that matter, private) manners.

[waldo]

There were at least 4 cows. I do not remember any chickens. :)

And yes, I'd happily teach a class of 12 of him. This unholy disaster (see my most recent post) I had today is So Not On!