Lucas Camilo

Have we mentioned that Lucas LOVES DUCKS? He says (signs) duck when he first wakes up in the morning, when he’s happiest throughout the day, and then later when he’s grumpy, and then again as he’s falling asleep at night. It’s tough to say what he loves more right now – ducks or books – since he usually signs the two together. Meaning, “get me a duck book.” He’ll even throw in a “please” and a “thank you” if he doesn’t see you moving quickly enough to get him a duck book.

Lucas’s fascination with ducks has been growing over the past few months. First he learned the sign and loved quacking his fingers together. Then he learned to identify ducks in his books, and pretty soon he was rapidly flipping past all the other animals until he got to the duck page of any animal book. When he lands on the page with downy, yellow ducks, he points, smiles, and quacks his hands proudly. He’s now able to “read” himself more pages in the animal books (signing cow, butterfly, sheep, cat, and mouse too), but he still pauses longest on the duck page.

So it occurred to us recently that he might like real ducks. Over Memorial Day weekend we went with our friend Alexis out to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens – a preserved wetland area with old lily and lotus gardens along the Anacostia River. It was great for Lucas because there was over a mile of accessible boardwalk that wound through the wetlands, but the closest we found to ducks were a family of geese. The growing goslings looked a lot like ducks to us, but either the sun was in Lucas’s eyes or he just wasn’t buying it.

So this weekend, with Nonna and Papa in town visiting, we decided it was time to see some real live ducks. On Saturday morning we packed Lucas up early  — it’s been humid and in the 90s for the last week — and beat the crowds to the bird exhibit at the zoo.  (For some strange reason the ducks are not a featured animal at the National Zoo and thus we had missed them the couple other times we’ve wandered around.)

This would be a great story if Lucas had gone crazy when we finally saw ducks. But in fact, his reaction to the ducks pretty much matched their reaction to us. About a dozen ducks floated peacefully around three small ponds in the shade. A couple stood on rocks on cleaned their feathers. A mommy duck led a pack of tiny babies through the pond. Lucas looked intently, and with our encouragement of ducks! ducks! ducks! and quack! quack! quack!, he eventually said “duck.” Unclear if it was because he was happy about the ducks in front of him — maybe totally awe struck — or just to get us to stop quacking at him.

We later found ducks hanging out with the flamingos, and they were fun to watch. But soon Lucas gave us the “go” sign, and he actually looked happiest when we were cruising around, stopping and going every 10 steps on his command. So the jury’s out on real ducks. But, of course, as soon as we got home he was ready for a duck book.

And Nonna and Papa have come up big for Lucas in the books category, too.  Since they arrived on Thursday he’s had them reading him books for hours on end. And he’s also gotten some good  sessions in the swing as well as endless singing of “Old MacDonald,” with Lucas requesting “duck” for every verse. (Thanks Nonna and Papa!)