A summer of animals

Yesterday Dominic and I were out running when we passed a woman and her two yappy chihuahuas. My sweet little boy waved his pudgy fists and called out, "Buh-bye doggies." I was so shocked I had to stop running. Dominic is not the type to bestow kind greetings on passing animals; he is more likely to Houdini out of his straps, use the cup holder as a launching pad and quarterback-sack the poor mutts. But more to the point, Dominic thinks dog are bears.

Until recently his vocabulary consisted of BOAT, MORE and the ever-popular NO. Imagine these hollered at sound-barrier decibel levels. Dominic, do you want a bath? NO! Do you like ice cream? NO! His NOs are rather indiscriminate; I think he just loves being contrarian. 

In the past weeks he has picked up more and more words, but none have attained the popularity of BEAR. Every animal we encounter is a BEAR.

In an effort to stimulate his vocabulary I even bought him animal flashcards. We've been going over them every day. A recent session went something like this:

ME (holding up zebra card): "Dommie, what's this?"

DOMINIC: "BEAR."

ME (holding up cat card): "Dommie, what's this?"

DOMINIC: "BEAR."

ME (holding up butterfly card): "Dommie, what's this?"

DOMINIC: "BEAR. ROAR."

Shortly after that I left his side for 20.2 seconds, only to come back and find that he had eaten the alligator card. ROAR.

In honor of Dominic's burgeoning animal vocabulary, I thought I'd post some pictures to show just how many animals we've seen this summer. And by animals, of course, I mean BEARS.