This morning Anna was in a very chipper mood, so we decided to go to a playgroup function at the lake to feed the ducks. When we arrived, twenty minutes late, there were no other members of the playgroup present, so we took our lunchbox full of bread and Kix down to the duck panhandling area.

When we have previously fed the ducks, they have generally loitered near the shore and boat launch, but today, they were all out further away from shore along the floating pier. Walking out on a floating pier with a) a three-year-old and b) an $1800 camera was somewhat distressing. The pier wobbled with every step, and Anna wound up for every toss like a major league pitcher. In my mind I was working through my exact sequence of actions I would take when Anna would inevitably fall in. Should I put the camera down carefully and jump in after her, or should I lie down near the edge and try to reach her from the pier? If I didn’t set down the camera first, I might accidently drop it in or fall in myself in the heat of the moment. I decided that either way I should set the camera down first. In the end, Anna stayed dry and upright, so my careful forethought was wasted.

When our supply of bread and Kix was exhausted, we were headed back to the car when we spotted some old friends who have moved to Colorado, but were in town visiting, along with their baby boy. Anna would have no part of them. She is normally quite shy around new people, but this was unusual. After they left, everything was back to normal. She proceeded to pick up rocks in her Zoo bucket in the event that the ducks would like to eat them.

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Finally, Anna and I hauled our bucket of rocks back to the pier, where Anna demonstrated that, much like the seagulls who would not eat sand, ducks and geese will not eat rocks.