A lesson in nature

We have a lot of books with pictures of animals. But living in the city, it's rare that you ever get to see most of those creatures up close. For the little guy they must seem somewhat surreal.

At the cottage he had some wonderful encounters with nature. I truly believe that he's been enriched by them. Here are just a few examples:

There were hundreds of Sun Fish swimming near the dock. So many, that you could easily catch them in a fishing net. So we did just that. Daddy would catch them in the net, and put them into a bowl full of water for M baby to watch. Then we'd let him release them back into the water. We also let him take turns holding the net, trying to catch the fish. The only problem was that his joy of fishing did not quite parallel his love for throwing things into the water. I can't tell you how many times I had to lean over the dock to rescue our poor net.

Speaking of leaning over the dock to rescue the net...that reminds me of another wildlife encounter - one which the little guy enjoyed much more than me. As I was trying to grab the net from the water, a very large water snake swam right by my hand. I screamed and jumped to saftey. But Daddy and baby boy went racing down the dock in hot pursuit. They thought that snake was the coolest thing ever. I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion.....

There was a pond beside the cottage, with a continuous water flow. An oasis for frogs. Really big ones and really little ones. Baby boy was fascinated by them, especially when they were gently prodded causing them to jump in the air. Daddy caught a frog and brought it on to the deck for him to get a closer look. We had to enforce a "look not touch" rule after the way we saw him treat a poor spider and caterpillar the day before. He doesn't know his own strength.

One of the loveliest nature sitings we had were of loons swimming and calling to each other on the still water. The little guy was simply amazed when the loons would disappear under the water. "Loons! Swim!" he would yell.

On our long walks along the country road we also saw bunny rabbits and horses! And in our cottage we saw a mouse (or at least I did). The little guy kept on talking about a mouse so I think he might have seen it too.

A week at the cottage taught him more about nature than any book could ever do!