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Got a question?
| Luke: | [age 8] "This kid at school says that if you have more than one fish, it's called 'feesh'." |
| Me: | "He says the plural of 'fish' is 'feesh'?" |
| Luke: | "Yeah. He says it's a new word that they just came out with today. It's so new it's not even on the internet yet." |
| Me: | "That's pretty funny. What do you think of it?" |
| Luke: | "I think he has feesh for brains!" |
SEA JELLIES: original video from Andimthedad.com
This past summer, on a visit to Boston, we took in the jellies exhibit at the New England Aquarium. Beth, age 4, didn’t really care about them — she was more into the penguins — but Luke, age 8, was totally enamored. He especially liked the small phosphorescent “sea walnuts.” He grabbed my iPhone and started taking photos and videos.
In order of appearance, the types of jellies in this video are:
Luke was the camera man and/or director for most of these shots. He also helped me picked out the clips to include from the ~40 minutes of footage. I handled the final video edits and scored the music. The basic contours of the song had been floating around in my head for awhile and, in a fit of insomnia, I finally connected with some kind of sea jelly inspiration. I work with digital media professionally, and have written a lot of songs over the years, but this one is gratis: If anyone wants to use it for anything, the MP3 is up on Soundcloud for downloading under a Creative Commons license. You are free to share it and remix it, but please drop me a note by e-mail or Tumblr ask to let me know what you’ve done with it.
As with the prior And I’m the Dad nature videos on hummingbirds and bees (or that strange tutorial on bristlebots) this is one minute long. I have no explanation for the chosen length, other than that it is an easily digestible time, and that forcing a boundary keeps you focused on quality.
Would it be even cooler if these were live shots in the wild? Yes. Can I afford the money or time to take my kids on such a trip? Unfortunately no. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this.
Yesterday I posted about Beth’s choice of names for her fish. That was earlier. The fish has been renamed several times:
And that is how it stands now: the fish is named Glorious.
| Me: | "Have you decided what to name your fish?" |
| Beth: | [age 4] "I'm going to call her Susie." |
| Me: | "Oh, that's a nice name." |
| Beth: | "It's better than Sunflower Buttface." |
| Beth: | [age 3] "I can't wait to be a grown-up!" |
| Me: | "Don't rush it, sweetheart. Try to enjoy being a kid." |
| Beth: | "But I really want to be a grown-up." |
| Me: | "What kind of grown-up do you want to be?" |
| Beth: | "I want to be whatever is good for my family." |
| Me: | "That's the best idea I've ever heard." |
| Beth: | "I want to have a good job too." |
| Me: | "Is there a kind of job you want to do?" |
| Beth: | "I want to be a marine biologist. But you have to go to school to be a marine biologist. So first I have to go to school, then I become a grown-up, then I can be a marine biologist." |
| Me: | "Well, you have to go to school no matter what, to learn all kinds of things that help make you a better person. But you can start studying fish and science a long time before you grow up." |
| Beth: | "Okay. But I still want to be a grown-up." |
| Me: | "You will be. But for now, just be the best Beth you can be." |
| Beth: | "I'm already doing that!" |
How did I miss Mister Seahorse until now?
My kids love Eric Carle’s stories, and it turns out he wrote one about dads. One more book for the collection. From the back cover:
Dear Friends,
In most fish families, after the mother has laid the eggs and the father has fertilized them, the eggs are left on their own. But there are exceptions such as the seahorse, stickleback, tilapia, Kurtus nurseryfish, pipefish, bullhead catfish, and some others. Not only are the eggs cared for by a parent, but—surprise—that parent is the father. This may sound strange but it is the truth. And this is my story about them. I hope you enjoy my story.
– Eric Carle
Move over, Mother Nature. Father Nature has some work to do.
