Feb 02 2011
Manatee Festival
Last week we took Annada to a Manatee Festival. It was at Blue Springs – a natural spring. The water is warm, so the manatees follow the river to the spring in the winter (otherwise they would freeze).
The manatees captured Annada’s heart. Every night she prays, “Dear God, Thank you for manatees!” At home she pretends she is underwater and there are manatees swimming around her. She pretends markers are baby manatees and gives them to me to nurse (she saw a baby in the springs). She even said she would rather go see the manatees again over Disney World.
Running in the grass chasing her shadow.
If you look closely, you can see a manatee.
We decided to walk the trail (about a mile) to the spring’s source. As we started off, Annada was running down the trail chasing her shadow. After the trees got thicker, though, Annada’s shadow disappeared. Annada started crying, “My shadow, my shadow is gone!! Help me, Mommy. Help me Daddy. My shadow ran away!”
She was truly traumatized. It was hard to get her to leave the spot because she thought her shadow would be close to where she lost it. I got her up ahead to where there was sun and tried to explain that she needed sunlight to see her shadow. I don’t think she really bought it, though, because the rest of the day she kept a sharp lookout for her shadow and started to worry every time it disappeared.