ANIMALIA

One of Nicholas' first loves is animals. He has always had an affinity for animals even though we have no pets and no plans for pets...ever. I remember when he turned one, and we took him to the National Zoo in D.C., where they were holding a birthday celebration for another one year-old named Tai Shan, a baby panda. While he surely cannot remember that day, Nicholas speaks fondly and evocatively of that day. This, no doubt, is due to the fact that he has asked us countless questions about what we saw, what the day was like after he learned of that trip. Simply put, he has a photographic animal memory.

This is best exemplified during our trips to the zoo. When I exclaim, "It's a wild boar!" He will correct me and say, "No dad! It is a Visayan warty pig...obviously!" He seems to really thrive on studying the animals and has memorized all kinds of crazy facts about them- "Did you know______!" I can envision him as a very driven and delighted biologist one day.

In addition to his encyclopedic knowledge of animals, Nicholas has also amassed quite a collection of animal figurines. He probably has figurines for 50-75% of the animals he has ever seen, and the kid has been to a lot of zoos: the Oregon Zoo, National Zoo, San Antonio Zoo, Austin Zoo, Como Zoo, "New Zoo" in Minneapolis, San Diego Zoo, Seattle Zoo, and the Vancouver Zoo. He pretends that some of the figurines he has are the ones he does not have, and he often makes it known which animals he lacks ("I don't have a ___!")
Several weeks ago, we decided to bite the bullet and stop putting a pull-up on him at night. We told him after the first "dry" night that he would get a sticker every morning that his underwear was dry and that once he got to 30 stickers, he could get a new animal. He had recently watched a National Geographic video about the African savanna, and he fell in love with the Cape buffalo (see above). He said he wanted that... for sure. I could not find one in any of the stores, but I finally found one online and ordered it. One week ago, it arrived. Nicholas still does not know that we bought it for him and is uncertain if we will be able to find one.

Tonight, after I told him how proud I was of him for being such a big boy, he said, "Dad, it's okay if you cannot find me a Cape buffalo. I can pretend my longhorn is a Cape buffalo!" I was so moved that I almost marched downstairs and brought the buffalo right to him, but I decided not to. It will be much sweeter after he makes it through the month without having an accident and "earns" it. While this feat will represent one more step away from childhood (sniff, sniff), it is to be celebrated. These are the moments that remind me why I am one of the luckiest men (and dads) on Earth.