Dolphins Don't Have Bodies

Listening to the boys talk to each other in their serious voices almost always has me slapping my hand over my mouth to stop from laughing. Their heartfelt observations are often just as funny as their purposefully funny comments. Sometimes we hear them talking about disciplining each other.  “If you do that I will spank, you Talvin,” Clark will somberly tell Calvin, when he is about to do something undesirable. “You won’t,” is usually the measured response.  Frequently a scuffle follows.

Since our aquarium visit last week, the boys have been talking a lot about dolphins—to each other as well as to everyone else. We checked out a couple more library books about ocean life, but apparently the boys seem to understand dolphins without the books, and in the spirit of oral tradition, are passing these truths on to each other and whoever else will listen. As it turns out, there was a lot about the dolphin world that I did not understand until I overheard them talking about it. I took some notes.

Dolphin Basics:

"Dolphins don't have bodies."

"They do. Trainers get inside dolphins' bodies."

"Dolphins' fins are like the sign for yellow."

"They are cute because they don't have hands."

On Our Dolphin Show Experience:

"I didn't like when the dolphin blew out his fin hole. I cried. Nick liked it."

"I don't like the dark water the dolphins got in. I did like the bright water."

"The dolphins didn't want any milk."

"My favorite is the dolphin show and Nick's is the dolphin show and Cal's favorite is the jellyfish show."

Trainers Teach the Dolphins...

to read your face

to read words in a book

to clap

to spin in circles

to dance like a break dance

to say hi to everybody by water that is bright water

how to play a guitar

how to play football

how to play tennis

how to play drums

Clearly, dolphins are even smarter than you and I thought. I dare you to go listen to a toddler conversation and not be amused.

Clark kisses his dolphin puppet, whose name is, incidentally, Clark.