Night Sounds

There was an owl in the park last night. As our 21-month-old was falling asleep in his crib, the tree across the street had in it a silent-winged carnivore looking to devour any drousy rodents below. At the moment, I can't explain to my kid the crisis in Egypt or the gentrification going on in our neighborhood or what Obamacare is. At bedtime, he wants to be read to, to be held and to be sung to before he's placed in his warm bed.
But at bedtime last night, I tried to explain to him, an owl was outside his window looking for dinner. No, the owl was looking for breakfast. It was morning outside in the park for a massive, silent and hungry owl. Listen, Elliot, you have much to learn! But he wasn't interested. Of course, he knows what an owl looks like and that it says, "hoo, hoo". But Elliot preferred and prefers his parents' singing voices. He just wanted us to sing, "holy, holy" and to put him in his crib with Elmo.
He doesn't know anything about our country's deficit, Denver's failing school system, homeless people sleeping on the streets in sub-zero temperatures. He doesn't spend time on Twitter, Craigslist, ESPN, Drudgereport or Amazon like his dad does but he will tell you "God" made his toes and "God" will heal the bump on his head. He even can say "Jesus" now. He knows plenty for a 21-month-old.
He didn't know about the 105th National Western Stock Show going on down the street earlier this month. His mom took a field trip with him last week so we might increase his awareness. She even biked to the complex so he could observe his surroundings a bit better en route. We'd rather not just take our kids to a petting zoo. Elliot was introduced to some beasts of the field last week. The bigger the animals, the better.
El saw pictures of his uncle snorkeling in the ocean with whale sharks today and thought snow was on the whale's back. Those are spots, El. God put spots on some of His whales. There is snow outside in the park where the owl is looking for breakfast though.

The more often we sing, the better. We know we won't always get to sing this crumb-cruncher to sleep.