A Smart and Sensitive Boy

Somehow, Nick, James, and I got started on a conversation about deep sea creatures recently. I told James (since Nick already knew) how it’s pitch black and very cold in the deepest parts of the ocean and that the creatures there are strange looking, very different from animals we see in the shallower ocean or on land.

I found a few videos on YouTube for them to watch, videos showing still shots and moving footage of those weird creatures at the bottom of the sea, including some that exhibit bioluminescence. Here is one of the best videos we found:

If you watch the video, you’ll see a portion where a small fish – similar to a shrimp or lobster – is spraying some kind of luminescent blue ink to evade being eaten by an angler fish. The little fish finally sprays a whole bunch of the ink and flits away, and then the angler fish darts through the cloud of blue. The video then switches to another scene with other creatures.

After we had watched this, little Robert (two years old) kept saying, “fish … eat … eat … fish … fish….” He’s just barely starting to put two words together and communicates by saying different words separated by several seconds. (An example: “mommy … (long pause) … waffle … (long pause) … plate”)

I kept responding to him by saying things like, “Yes, fish eat … fish need to eat … yes.” This went on for about 15 minutes, and Robert seemed a little agitated so I pulled him onto my lap and, immediately, his little lips started to quiver and pull downward. He said again, “fish … eat….”

I realized that he thought the big angler fish had eaten the little fish, and he was sad about it!

I am still amazed that, without any commentary from anyone, he watched that video and deduced that one fish had eaten the other (even though that was not shown). He stayed sad (with that super cute sad lip) for probably 20 minutes, saying again and again, “fish … eat….” but we continually assured him with, “The little fish swam away. He didn’t get eaten – he swam away!”

He got happy again when James announced that he was a frill shark, Robert was a leafy sea dragon, Nick was firefly squid, Jon was a lion’s mane jellyfish, and I was a giant squid. Well, you just never know what will interest a little boy….