Duck, Duck, Goose

It is no doubt a milestone in every child’s life: Her first encounter with a real, live duck.

Well, OK, maybe that’s not a hallmark event for all little girls, but for Lexie (and probably more so, for us) it was a big one. You see, the child is obsessed with ducks.

I partly blame myself. I’ve always been partial to baby wear, toys, books – you name it – decorated with ducks. There’s just something so sweetly babyish about it, and it doesn’t hurt that duck decor is firmly non-gender specific. But what really started Lexie’s infatuation was when my cousin Leah brought her a stuffed duck, and it became the first toy we let her sleep with in the crib.

Ducky (alternatively known as Mr. Duckers, Duckety Duckers and, I’m bit ashamed to say, Peking Duck and The Donger), is one of those odd creations they make for babies that’s really a blanket with a head (hence the occasional addition of Ghost Duck to the name game). Lexie utterly adores this duck (though, fortunately, she can sleep with the substitutes we regularly rotate in to protect ourselves from a dreaded loss). Sometimes, she’ll spend half an hour deep in conversation with it after going down for a nap or nighttime sleep.

At bedtime when story time is over and she lies fussing on the bed as we zip her into her sleep sack, Ducky’s appearance is usually all it takes to calm her down. If she’s clutching some sort of other object (sippy cup, book, block, etc.) as she often is, the offer of Ducky can always convince her to trade.

That’s probably why “duck” was one of her first words besides “Dada” and “Mama” and one of the first things she was able to identify on sight. It’s also why she now (and for who knows how long) identifies anything with a beak, feathers and/or wings as a duck (yes, even penguins).

So you can imagine her (our) excitement when we took her to a small, local zoo over the weekend and she finally came face to face with the real thing.

When we first spotted the snowy white duck swimming and quacking in a little pool, we were slightly concerned that she might not even identify it as one of her most-beloved species. After all, it wasn’t bright yellow (or blue) with a pronounced wing like she sees so often in her picture books. But she knew right away. ”Duck!” she announced confidently, arm outstretched and finger pointing.

We moved on to the next pool, full of a gaggle (herd? flock?) of ducks of all different kinds, and she once again called out to her feathered friends: “Duck! Duck!”

Still, I have to admit my own excitement probably outmeasured hers. In all honesty, she didn’t really seem any more excited to see the ducks than the sheep, horses and cows. She took the biggest shine to a large plastic cow near the entryway (it looked much more like her storybook cows than the giant-headed, all-black real one that we saw) and, somewhat distrubingly, a sleeping white boa constrictor, whose window she plopped down contentedly in front of and later kept wandering back to.

At any rate, the whole afternoon was simply spectacular. It’s such an incredible joy to watch a child for whom every new experience is a thrilling discovery, whether she’s shouting “neigh” at a horse or offering to share her ball with the sheep. And she was just as fascinated observing the other children around her as she was watching the animals.

I know that someday, maybe even soon, some other toy or animal will win her favor away from her first love, but for now, her duck infatuation sure has been fun to watch. I just hope it lasts through Halloween, since we already have her costume planned …