I always lie down at night with each of my kids before they go to bed.  It takes a while to make the rounds, but the rewards are great.  My two year old spends the time poking all over my face calling out eye, nose, mouth, etc.  She is always bitterly disappointed when I leave.  Then I head down the hall to where Jack and Jenna share bunk beds.  Jack is at a stage where only sometimes does he want me to lie down with him.  However, tonight I climbed up to the top bunk to have a few precious moments with my 4 year old boy wonder before kissing  him goodnight.

We were talking about our upcoming trip to the beach.  I told him next week we would be learning about sea turtles before we go to the beach.  We have visit a sea turtle rescue center.  So, Animal Boy aka: Jack rolls over on his belly, props his head up in his hands and begins to tell me in his “animal fact giving way” about sea turtles.  Jack looked at me and said, “Did you know sea turtles are like rhinoceros?  They both give birth to their young.”  I replied, “Yes, but a rhinoceros is a mammal so they give birth to live young and they nurse their babies. (talk about dirty nipples! lol)  A sea turtle is a reptile so they lay eggs and they don’t nurse their babies.”  Jack chimes in with “and the sea turtles eat jellyfish, that is all they eat.”  ”No, leatherbacks eat jellyfish, but some other sea turtles eat other things.  The babies eat sea weed too.”, I commented.  

Suddenly his face looked a little perplexed.  When he really gets to talking about animals he uses his hands to talk.  The hands enter the conversation . . .   “Well, Fire Turtles use fire to shoot at their predators!”  And they get fired all the time so we have to rescue them.” (imagine hands doing shooting motions here) The mental picture in my mind suddenly jumped to a really old king fu movie I had once watched with my brother about a turtle who was jet propelled by fire.  I could not help myself!  I was lying there in bed with him dying laughing.  I was so anxious to get this written down, I almost skipped out on lying down with Jenna.  

However, I suddenly heard, “Mom!!!, you forgot to lie down with me!.”  Oh yeah, oh yeah, what have you got to tell me about tonight sweet girl? . . . .