Undue Influence?

Jan 24
Amy

For anyone who knows me and knows my parents at all, knows a lot about my dad.  He is an Animal Behaviorist – basically a fancy term for a psychologist for animals – and he’ll kill me for putting it that way.  🙂  An animal behavorist studies just that – the behavior of animals.  Over my lifetime, I can remember him studying many different types of “animals” including caddis flys and ground squirrels (he and my mom actually had one for a pet).

The most recent animal he studied was bats.  To sum it up, he was trying to determine whether or not bats live in family groups and how extensive those family groups are.  It involved YEARS of research – Emma was a tiny girl the first time we went out and watched him catch and study bats.  Because of the time he’s spent studying bats and holding public bat nights he has been dubbed the “Bat Man”.  My girls all love it, and they have really loved it every single time they’ve gotten to see a bat up close or touch one.

 

I started to realize how much of an influence that has had on their lives when Reagan started hanging her stuffed animal bats from her top bunk so they could keep her company while she sleeps.  Until today, I thought she was the only one who was really taking things to the extreme (which I love, by the way).

Today, I got an e-mail from my friend, Laura.  She is one of the teachers at Harley & Katelyn’s school.  She discovered a little creation of Harley’s last week at school, and she went back into her classroom today to take pictures for me.  She’s also the one who takes pictures of all of Harley’s bulletin board artwork for me.  Harley has an AWESOME teacher this year.  He was also Emma’s 6th grade teacher, Mr. Long.  He is very open to creativity and uniqueness, which is one of the reasons I think Harley likes him so much.  At any rate, Laura took this pictures of Harley’s fort today.

The Bat Cave:
  

Harley has built herself a fort on one of the tables in the classroom, and that is where she does her classwork.  She left one end open so she can see the board at the front of the classroom.  Apparentlly she just hangs out under there, doing her work, and enjoying herself.

So, here’s my question . . . has my dad had an undue influence on the girls?

I do, and I think it’s FANTASTIC!