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Territorial Moo

During a recent trip, the boys were getting rowdy in the backseat of the van with their loveys, Lamby and Moo. You all know Lamby; she’s been Ben’s special stuffy from birth and has a personality all her own, as brought to you by Benjamin.  I think that, sometimes, Ben lives vicariously though Lamby. Lamby is silly, loud and very, very naughty. She and I do not see eye-to-eye. Sounds crazy, I know. But, you haven’t met Lamby.

Moo is somewhat better behaved, though not by much.

Generally, Moo and Lamby are in lock-down in the boys’ room, but for special trips they get to come along. We’d been chugging along the road pleasantly for several hours when suddenly Lamby and Moo went to town. Soon, from the corner of my eye, I could see streaks of white and black (and dirty off-white. Yuck!) as Lamby and Moo flew around the back of the van, engaged in what could only have been a lovey-battle to end all lovey-battles.

IMG_20140726_152841047 (2)

Finally, the noise level was reaching Richter scale proportions.

“Okay boys,” I warned. “Calm it down. What is going on back there?” I swiveled in my bucket-seat and gave my sons my very best ‘I mean it!’ look.

“Moo is very territorial,” Ben replied matter-of-factly.

Pierre and I exchanged a look in the front-seat. Territorial? Not what we were expecting to hear, but then kids tend to give you the unexpected.

Ben wasn’t about to get out of this one by dazzling us with big words.

“So Ben,” I said. “What does territorial mean?”

“It means that Moo doesn’t like anyone is his territory,” Ben explained. Moo’s territory, apparently, was Nicholas’ side of the mini-van which Lamby was trying to invade and conquer. Lamby is trouble. Moo was unimpressed.  I, on the other hand, liked Ben’s use of vocabulary.

“Okay,” I continued. “So, what does territory mean?”

“It means Moo doesn’t want anybody in his habitat,” Ben said, sounding a little bored. 

Habitat. Right, but he wasn’t getting away from this conversation that easily.

“Got it. What’s a habitat?”

“Mom, it’s where animals live.” Um, duh! I couldn’t help thinking that Moo is a bit of an odd duck, err…cow, if his habitat is the back of a smelly mini-van. 

Pierre finally piped-in from the driver’s seat, “Do you know any animals that are territorial?”

Ben thought for a millisecond, “Hippos are territorial.”

“Moose are territorial too,” Pierre added.

And apparently, so is Moo. The things you learn on road trips.

When asked, Ben told us that he had learned all about territorial animals from watching Wild Kratts. Thank you PBS! 

xo Naomi

Comments

  1. Irene @ FindAuPairAugust 5, 2014 at 8:22 AM

    I think it's just a faze. We all went through this, when we were young. It will pass!

    ReplyDelete

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