Obi

Even in preschool, Monkey2 has homework. Each Thursday she brings home a little bag with a letter attached, and Monday she has to return it to school with an item beginning with the new letter of the week. This weekend we are to find the letter "O."

She has decided she will bring "Obi."

Alas, not Obi Wan Kenobi.

From her description, an Obi looks remarkably like the gecko we saw last week at the zoo. Except he is "small, like me, my size" she says. The gecko was small, but definitely not her size. Her Obi's size is in comparison to Ana's Obi, which is quite big.

Ah, the fantastic friend Ana. Ana lives in Paris, sometimes. Ana has done everything, seen everything, knows all about everything. Ana, with her Obi, lives on the beach, with a house near a palm tree. Monkey2 showed me a picture of the beach, from an REI Adventures catalog, on the Family Trips page: Costa Rica. Monkey2 insisted that we must go today to get her Obi from Ana's house.

After fuddling with the world map -- where is Costa Rica? -- Dad enlightened us. And he told Monkey2 that she couldn't go there because she doesn't like to sit more than an hour in the car.

"How many days of a one-hour drive would it take for us to get there?" I wondered aloud.
"A YEAR!" my husband answered.

Hopefully Monkey1's idea of a picture of "Oma & Opa" will do as second-best since Obi will be staying in Costa Rica.