Take a Kid Along

Lots of birdies were preening this gorgeous sunny morning at Viera Wetlands. We started out with coats and quickly molted as the mercury rose to 70. A moorhen arranged its feathers, unperturbed by its own tomato-red schnozz. This is one of my nicer Leica-digiscoped images. Thank you, Leica!

Phoebe got downright bossy about digiscoping with Daddy's Leica scope and camera; she'd done some digiscoping with him on their trip to the Space Coast festival in January 2010.

"You're too close. Move back. Wait, you'll scare them. Stop here."  That kind of thing. 

It was the transformation I saw in Phoebe after that trip with Bill that made me decide to take both of the kids this year. When she came back after only a week, it was as if she had grown an inch in stature and a foot in self-confidence. Much as I wanted to give Liam his own experience in Florida, taking them both was the right, the only thing to do. It worked out beautifully. They moved as a single unit, never lonely, seldom bickering, supporting each other and me.

I was proud to introduce them to my friends. If you take your kids lots of places, they learn how to travel. If you integrate them into your social groups, they learn how to mesh with others. Start 'em young and they'll get the hang of being present without being a pain.

 The world needs more Shoom, anyhow.

And every Shoom needs to see an eight-foot reptile hauled out and sleeping by the road. Gators and manatees were the draw for him, and Florida delivered!