Sophie and I went on a bug adventure earlier. We took a walk around the block to try to find bugs. Unfortunately, according to Sophie, ants don’t qualify as bugs. There were lots of ants, but not so many other critters.

We did see a butterfly, but it scampered away fairly quickly. And we saw a gnat, too. But that was about it. There were lots of little birds, but Sophie wasn’t particularly interested in those today.

After a few minutes, Sophie turned her attention toward the trees. “Mommy, is this the jungle?” she inquired. Sophie is obsessed with the jungle. Wherever we go, if there’s a tree, she sees a jungle. Now, while we have a lot of trees where we live, we obviously don’t live in a jungle. There are arguably forests nearby, sort of. But we were simply strolling along a nearby street, and she was focusing on a relatively young tree planted curbside. Not a jungle. Not a forest. I tried explaining that in order to see the jungle we’d need to take the plane and go far, far away. She doesn’t get the concept.

But she’s a kid and if she thinks she’s living in the jungle, who am I to disabuse her of that fallacy?