the difference between geese and ducks

holli left early this morning, so i was able to get in some quality solo hang-out time with the boys. the only thing that stood between chaos and slightly more chaos was me, and we made the most of the opportunity by watching sesame street, banging on metal mixing bowls with an ice-cream scoop (our new neighbors must love us), chasing the cats, and crying for various reasons. getting the boys ready for day care by myself can be challenging, to say the least, but i managed it today without screaming any bad words. i was sure thinking them, though.

on the way out the door, liam pointed up in the air and said, "birds!" i looked, and sure enough, a gaggle of geese was circling the park and making a glorious racket. now liam knows all about ducks, but where i see geese, he just sees more ducks. perfectly understandable. i won't even try to explain swans and loons to him until he's 12. in his animal book, the goose and swan are ducks, the gosling is a baby duck, geese say quack, and so forth. so this was a chance to set him straight, because no son of mine will spend his 2's thinking a goose is a duck.

"those are geese," i said. "do you hear what they're saying?" and liam said, "honk honk." we talked about the differences between geese and ducks ("duck quack quack quack"), and how geese (at least these geese) were different from the ducks that tried to kill us for our stale bread at indian boundary park:


anyway, while reading the animal book before bedtime tonight, liam remembered that geese (we don't have the singular down yet) are different from ducks, and with a little prompting, he gave a good "honk honk." victory! the damn swan is still a duck, though.

and just so max doesn't feel left out, this is what our 8-month-old looks like when he's overtired, frustrated, and suffering from the infant hell that is teething: