The Deken Zoo

For Valentine’s day, we delivered cookies and hand-painted valentines to our extended family.  Ryan is learning a nursery rhyme at school, one that I’d never learned when I was a kid, and he sang it for his grandparents and aunts and uncles:

Little ducky Duddle
Went swimming in a puddle,
Went swimming in a puddle quite small.

Said he “It doesn’t matter
If I splash or splatter;
I’m just a ducky, after all.  Quack quack!”

Of course, Ryan didn’t have it all down, so he sung the following abridged & revised version:

All duckies live in puddles;
We’re living in a puddle.
I’m just a little ducky after all, quack quack!

Personally, I like the modus ponens feel of Ryan’s version, even if it’s not a rigorous proof.  And his audience didn’t mind one whit.

The way our house is configured, the living room and kitchen are at the back.  These two rooms are split by a U-shaped staircase leading to the second floor, where you’ll find all the bedrooms.

When I watch TV downstairs, I sit where I have a line of sight to the top of the steps, but it’s usually so dark that I can’t make them out.  Tonight while Stephen and I were watching TV, we heard the floor creak.  We looked at each other.  I peered into the darkness, but didn’t see anything moving.  So Stephen asks into the darkness, “Is somebody on the stairs?”

Out of the dark, quietly but matter-of-factly, the answer comes from Ryan.

“Nope.”