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December 18, 2009

Devolvoing.

It was cute at first, but it was starting to drive me a little bonkers. How long could it possibly go on?

"Jade, could you please come upstairs?"
"I'm not Jade. I'm a baby monkey!"
"Jade Monkey, could you please come upstairs?"
"Not Jade Monkey. I'm a baby monkey!"
"Baby Monkey, could you please come upstairs?
"OK, Papa Monkey!"

It was "monkey" this and "monkey" that for nearly a month.  The above conversation happened dozens of times every day.  I was not allowed to address my child by her birth name, but I persisted.  I was getting worried that she would want her name legally changed to "Baby Monkey".  Then, I was worried that I would have to get my name legally changed to "Papa Monkey".

Fortunately, the "baby monkey" era has come to an end.  There is no more monkeying around.

We have devolved.

Now, Jade is a baby bird.  I am a papa bird.  Fawn is a mama bird.  Halia is a baby bird.  When we sit down, we "perch".  When we go to bed, we are getting into our "nests".

It's cute.  But how much longer will it last?

And what's next?

Dinosaurs?

Fish?

Zooplankton?

Amoebas?

I can't help but worry that we're headed in the wrong direction here...

4 comments:

dogsled_stacie said...

No way she's just got a great imagination!!! I mean, who wouldn't want to be in a family of monkeys! I think you should go back to that one myself.

And when you become a family of woolly mammoths or saiga antelopes, you know where to go to feel at home! :)

Clare said...

I read the title, and thought you'd sold your 77 Volvo Stationwagen.

Plus you're still evolving. We tend to think of evolution as a hierarchy, a ladder if you will. In truth it's more like a branching tree, with the latest tips the latest evolved species. And while its true that there does tend to be an increase in complexity, it isn't necessarily the case.

It ends up how it ends up, there is no ladder.

Scientific Chick said...

My guess? Octopus.

Meandering Michael said...

Scientific Chick: In the span of a day, she went from bird to elephant to frog. Tonight she went to bed on her lily pad.

Clare: I've always thought of evolution as more of a grassy knoll. The grass sends out runners that develop into new tufts of grass. Some of the old tufts remain, but some die off (Although I suppose this is easier to convey on a tree if you draw lines through it to mark the passage of time - assuming that time is linear, of course). By the way, have you ever thought about changing the name of your blog to "The Fundamentalist Darwinian"?