Kitty!

Every Saturday I get the privilege of teaching an introductory biology class in which, for the most part, the students are conscientious and hard working. Due to their conscientious nature there are a few lab groups that are a little slow. This morning, for example, 4 of the six groups finished their lab activity 20 minutes ago, one is just now completing the project, and one group is basically just starting the second part. This second part requires that they leave little vials of yeast in a water bath and take measurements of the carbon dioxide production every 5 minutes for 30 minutes. It is now 11:45 am, all of the other lab groups are gone now, and it will take this one group about 10 minutes to complete the setup, 30 minutes to do the procedure, and then another 10 - 15 minutes to clean up. For those of you who are unable to do the math in your head, this means that I hate them.

The one good thing about the time that this group is taking is that it gives me a chance to post another story.

Last night Jen wasn't feeling well so I took the boys out to Petsmart to pick up some things. We needed some fish food because, as it turns out, they die if you don't feed them. We also needed to pick up a sucker fish to clean the tank because, as it turns out, lots of fish in a small tank means lots of poop and lots of algae. This poop and algae eventually make a film on the glass which makes enjoyment of the fish more challenging.

Ryan, Ethan and I hopped into the van and cruised to the store, listening to Metallica along the way. I am becoming a little more sure of the fact that they shouldn't be listening to this stuff, and Ryan let me know that I might be overreacting when he said, after the music ended, "I'm not going to do what Metallica says cuz it is really hard to sleep with one eye open. Plus, I haven't found any beasts under my bed." Then he paused a second. "But I don't really know what a beast is, so I could be wrong."

By this time we were in the parking lot and I was able to change the subject from Metallica to fish, so I took that opportunity. "Ready guys?"

"Ready!" said Ryan, climbing out of his seat.

"Car!" said Ethan pointing at the car next to us.

And we were off to the joys of Petsmart. We walked in and headed to the doggie day care section by running (Ryan)/walking (me)/running, walking, pausing every few seconds to look at something on a shelf, and general impeding the progress of the rest of us (Ethan). There were no dogs to be seen, but this simply meant that we had more time to go look at the cats. We then proceeded to the cat section in much the same manner as we had to the doggie day care. When we finally got there, Ryan noticed that all of the cats were asleep.

"Dad and Ethan, be quiet," Ryan whispered. "They are all asleep."

"OK," I whispered

"Kitty!" Ethan yelled, pointing at the cats. "Kitty! Kitty!"

"Let's go somewhere else so we don't wake them up," suggested Ryan.

"Kitty!" said Ethan, still pointing, clearly not in agreement.

I picked Ethan up to speed our progress across the store to the fish section. This section sports an entire wall which contains at least 50 tanks with different types of fish in each. When we got there I put Ethan down and Ryan quickly started looking for the sucker fish tank. Ethan stared in seeming awe at the wall of tanks. He ran up to one tank, pointed at it, and said "Fish!" He then looked to his left and appeared to notice that tank for the first time and pointed at that one.

"Fish!" he said.

Then, he looked up, his little face filled with joy. "Fish! Fish! Fish!" he said as he quickly moved from one tank to the next.

"Man. He really likes fish," said Ryan. "I like fish too, but he might like them more than me. We should get him his own tank." He paused slightly, as if thinking this next part over. "And a puppy. Mom said we could get a puppy this summer."

"Really?" I asked. I happen to know that Jen is more likely to allow Ryan to get a flamethrower and use it to practice igniting cars in the church parking lot, but I let it slide for now because Ethan then let out what sounded like maniacal laughter and ran down the length of the wall pointing at all the fish. I jogged after him and eventually grabbed him and we found someone to help us with our suckerfish purchase. As we moved on to the checkout line he noticed a dog down the aisle. Of course, you would imagine with his love of all animals he would yell out "Dog!", but alas, he did not. I was a little disappointed when he instead pointed at the dog and yelled "Kitty!"

"No, Ethan, that is a dog, not a kitty," I said.

"Yeah, Ethan," said Ryan, ever the helpful one. "Kitties are small and say 'meow' and dogs are bigger and say 'bark'. That's a dog. Mom said we could get one."

"Kitty!" said Ethan.

"Nope, that's a dog," I said. "Doggie."

"Kitty!" he said again, this time pointing at the dog. One of the things I have learned over time with these boys is that, aside from the incident with the Clementine orange earlier in the month when Ethan couldn't be convinced that it was not a ball, they are typically not this adamant about things when they are wrong. So I looked around the store for the kitty he might be seeing. As it turns out, there was a kitty, but it was on a sign way above the floor and it happened to be exactly above the dog that he seemed to be pointing at.

I mentioned this to Ryan and we both acknowledged that Ethan was right all along.

"We really need to pay more attention to that kid," said Ryan. "You can't always understand what he says, but he sure knows his kitties."

As soon as Ryan said this, Ethan pointed through the window at a dog getting its hair trimmed. "CAR!" he shouted.

We'll have to work on that one.