One-track mind, revisited

For two or three years, Bryce was into animals in a major way. You may remember my zoo tour of North America last summer, in which we visited seven or eight zoos and animal parks over the course of two months. He'd spend hours at Jungle Mouse, researching animals. His goal in life was to get a PhD in zoology and open his own zoo, filled with endangered animals. So I oh-so-patiently spent hours googling things like "threats to porcupine" or "endangered possum." I felt like I was the one earning the PhD in zoology. He has an entire shelf filled with animal books, and his fantastic first-grade teacher spent the fall setting aside library books on obscure animals because she knew he'd want to check them out.

Then Eddie came home with a Playstation 2 and the LEGO Star Wars game, and for the last six months or so, it was all Star Wars all the time. Instead of Jungle Mouse, he was spending his time on IMDB looking up the actors in the films, and at Wookiepedia, learning obscure facts about all of the characters. He decided he'd rather be a movie director than a zoologist and I had nightmares about him growing up to be one of those guys who thinks he's Greedo and goes from Star Wars convention to Star Wars convention like some nerdy groupie. I was really pining for the days when he had been into animals-- it was academic and smart without being just plain old geeky like Star Wars is.

Then, last week, two things happened. First of all, he and his dad beat LEGO Star Wars. They got whatever it is you get on all the levels, played the secret level, and finished the game. We also went out of town for a week and stayed with people who don't have a Playstation.

Now, he's back into the animal groove. And I had forgotten how annoying he was last summer. He went to bed crying last night because I couldn't find a suitable endangered otter for his zoo. Tonight he's upset because he can't remember exactly where the elephant exhibit is at the Fort Worth Zoo (it's been about 18 months since we visited, but apparently their website sucks and he can't find an online map). He didn't want to go to swimming lessons this afternoon because he wanted to play Zoo Tycoon. And he's been carrying around this clay snake-like object, introducing it to everyone has his new pet caecilian, Tom. Tom apparently has a large extended family, and Bryce will go through the entire family history to anyone who will listen.

I'm giving him a week at zoo camp for his birthday in May. I figure that by that time I'll need someone else to answer his incessant animal questions for a few days.  Enough of this animal crap-- give me Yoda any day of the week.

--originally published 3/21/07