Benson's Current Obsession

It seems like most little kids develop some kind of fascination/obsession/passion for something. After watching our nephews and nieces (Benson's cousins) get fixated on trucks, trains, sports, bugs, etc., we've been curious to see what would really catch Benson's interest. We've exposed him to a lot of things, and over the past few weeks, a definite preference has emerged. LIONS!



Here's our aspiring lion tamer about 1 inch away from the object of his affection. I really hope the glass on the lion cage is secure. We go to the Milwaukee Zoo once a week (a benefit of living 5 minutes away), and Benson is always completely mesmerized by the lions.



Benson's latest word is lion ("li-ah"), which he repeats at least 90 times per day. He "studies" his animal book for a long time each day, and he always flips open to the lion page first and just holds the lion with his hands and brings it up his mouth to give the lion a kiss. He also loves to carry around his little lion toy.


We're not too concerned about this dangerous attraction yet, but in 20 years, if Benson tells us he wants to study zookeeping, the answer is NO! And if he ever announces he's going to do a study abroad in Botswana, that answer is also NO. For now though, we think the obsession is still cute and we're happy to feed it by showing Benson more pictures and videos of lions. So, if you ever want to discuss lions, you know who to talk to!