Unicorns, Faries, Okapi's and other Mythical Creatures

Within the last 6 months, Mia's dad and stepmother took Mia and her kissing cousin KJ to the zoo. As it is with little ones, the stories that get told after such trips have 90% truth, 5% misunderstanding and 5% imagination.

Within that 5% of misunderstanding, is included the small child's misunderstanding of what was really happening, and the listener of the small child's stories misunderstanding of the tale.........ie, word pronunciation.

At three, even with all of the talking Mia does, she still has problems with the letter "L".......a lion is a "whyon", I love you, "I wuv you", etc......she is working on it, but it still poses a problem.

So, when Mia was telling her mom about the "Okapi" at the zoo, Jennifer had no idea what she was talking about. And the description of the Okapi was no less confusing. Jennifer had even asked me to try and figure out what she was talking about and I too was clueless. I mean, we assumed she was leaving letters off, or misunderstood what was being told, you know, lots of possibilities for misunderstanding.

Mia was here Thursday and it was a beautiful day, so Catherine and I took Mia to the zoo. When I called and told Jennifer we were going, she said "Make sure you find out what an Okapi is!", and I promised her I would not leave the zoo until we solved the mystery of the "Okapi"


As you can see, the only people who were without a clue were the grown-ups. An Okapi is not a mythical creature, nor a mispronunciation by a three year old, and cutting us some slack, when she tried to describe the animal, well, as you can see, it is one ODD creature! No wonder that animal stuck in her head enough to want to share the story.........ah my little sweet toot Mia! I loved spending the day at the zoo with you and Catherine. I will post some more photos later.