Wednesday, April 21, 2010

A riDIKulous name.

I told you the other day that I took two of my nieces to San Diego this past weekend to visit our friends Andy and Kacey and their son, Kien (6), and daughter, Maya (4). But what I FAILED to mention is that I realized this weekend that I might just be too immature to have children of my own.

Allow me to share with you my moment of epiphany . . .

When we were at the zoo, my niece Emma saw an animal called a Dik Dik.

Yes . . . I said "Dik Dik."

The name had barely registered when this conversation among the kids began:

Emma: [yelling with delight] Oh! A Dik Dik! I LOOOOOOVE Dik Diks!!!
Savannah: What's a Dik Dik?
Emma: I LOVE Dik Diks! Kien, did you see the Dik Dik??
Kien: Yeah. It's over there.
Maya: Where's the Dik Dik?
Emma: Over there. Oh! I didn't know there were Dik Diks in California!
Savannah: Emma, why do you keep saying Dik Dik? You like really like to say Dik Dik, don't you?
Kien: Yeah! Why do you like Dik Diks so much?

Meanwhile, I'm over to the side giggling uncontrollably, hitting Andy, wiping away tears, and doing the pee pee dance. Now, a mature person would have been able to listen to this exchange straight-faced and possibly taken the opportunity to educate the kids on where Dik Diks come from, what they eat, how they hunt and what they - yeah . . . I can't even get through that paragraph with a straight face.

How am I allowed to call myself an adult??

But, seriously - who ever even HEARD of a Dik Dik?? Much less knew so much about them that they became simply rapturous upon seeing them in the zoo? And let's be honest - that is a ridiculous name. Why on EARTH would anyone name an animal that, for goodness sake? Were there no better options? It made me a little nervous about the rest of the animals in that section . . . I was half afraid we'd see an Anus Anus or a Boob Boob next.

And there's no WAY I could've handled that.

6 comments:

Emma said...

Hysterical! She has seen them here at our zoo.....guess everything is just more exciting in California!

Phyllis Eddings said...

They're tiny antelopes arent' they? And I think they're from South Africa. (all this without Google. Will amend if I'm wrong.)

Phyllis Eddings said...

Close. East Africa. The paragraph below explains how they got their name. But Catherine, I do believe you are right. Too immature to have your own kids. LOL JK

A dik-dik, pronounced "dĭk’ dĭk", is a small antelope of the Genus Madoqua that lives in the bush of East Africa, Angola and Namibia. Dik-diks stand 30–40 cm (approx. 12–16 inches) at the shoulder, are 50–70 cm (approx. 20-28 inches) long, weigh 3–6 kg (approx. 7-16 pounds) and can live for up to 10 years. Dik-diks are named for the alarm calls of the females, which make a dik-dik, or zik-zik sound. In addition to the female's alarm call, both the male and female make a shrill whistling sound. These calls often alert a variety of other animals to any disturbance in the area. Consequently, hunters regard dik-diks as a nuisance and have killed great numbers in the past in order to prevent them from scaring away game animals

Anonymous said...

20-28 inches long huh? Pretty impressive. For a dik-dik.

Catherine said...

Nice one, Anonymous. Nice one. :)

Christi said...

L.M.A.O!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!