During our last vacation, we visited Chatanooga. One of Chatanooga’s primary attractions is its aquarium. It’s been so successful, in fact, that they built another one right next to it. One is fresh water and the other is salt. They are really quite impressive – even for someone who lives just up the road from Sea World.

We were down in the depths of the salt water aquarium, watching the sharks, when N touched the glass of the tank and suddenly said “Ow!”

He came running over to me, holding his hand as if it were hurt. “Daddy, daddy, a shark bit my finger!”

Um, I don’t think so.

“No, no, no, I’m just preTENDing!” He put extra emphasis on the “tend” part of the word pretending, just in case I didn’t understand. He waited until I nodded and then said “Okay. Let’s try again.”

He walked back to the glass wall of the tank, pretended to touch it, and then said “Ouch! A shark bit my finger!” Then he ran over to me, holding his hand like it was hurt.

I looked at him in astonishment and said “Oh no!” He giggled and walked back to the tank. Suddenly, it happened again. “Ouch! A shark bit my finger!” The game went on for about five more shark bites before it was time to move on.

I must be slowing down. You’d think it wouldn’t have taken me two tries to get the game right.

It was good of him to give me a second try, though. Wasn’t it?