Duck, Duck, Goose!

After visiting Grandma and Pa G., we went to California. Troy had a business trip and let us tag along with him. Of the whole trip, Timmy had the most fun at the hotel, where there was a huge man-made duck pond. We weren't allowed to feed them, but we interacted in lots of other ways.Tim thought it was fun to sneak up on them and scare them. He also liked chasing them, mimicking them sleeping while standing on one leg, and yelling to them, "DUCK! Come over here! Duck! Come play with me!" If one would venture our way, he would crouch down and repeat over and over and over.... "Hi! Hi, Duck! Hi!" in the same baby-talk way he speaks to Spencer.There were lots of fish in the pond, too. Timmy thought the fish and ducks were playing chase with each other. He would comment to me, "That fish is trying to catch that duck right there" or "Watch out, fish, that duck is coming to get you!" He quickly learned how to distinguish between the mommy ducks and the daddy ducks: "the daddy ducks have a green head!"

Troy was in business meetings during the time we spent at the duck pond. Each time we would come back inside after hours of birdwatching, I was always experienced a feeling of both amusement and slight embarrassment as Timmy would sprint at full speed down the corridors, shouting at the top of his lungs, "DADDY! We saw the geese! We saw the geese, Daddy! Come look, Daddy, there's geese outside."