If you could be any animal....?

Nico started this discussion yesterday in the car. If you could be any animal in the world, which one would you want to be?

Lucas answered cheetah, because they are fast runners. Nico wanted to be an owl, because they can fly, and they are mostly awake at night, and he thinks the night is the prettiest part of the day. I answered an eagle, because they are strong, powerful birds. Nico guessed that Daddy would want to be a snake, and that he and I could eat him, because sometimes birds eat snakes. Lucas thought he could be fast enough to catch me and Nico, but we could just fly higher, so no matter how fast he ran, he couldn't reach us.

So what is the second animal you would want to be? Nico picked a monkey, so he could climb through the trees. Lucas picked an eagle, so he could fly high in the air. I picked a bear.

Third animal? Nico picked a shark, and I picked a caterpillar/butterfly. I thought it would be neat to experience the metamorphoses process. But if I had to pick a sea animal (and Nico insisted that I did), it would be a dolphin. Nico thinks dolphins are defenseless, and sharks are tougher and stronger. I argued that dolphins are smarter, and still pretty tough.

I tried to move the conversation in another direction by asking what kind of plants they might want to be. Nico said a bush, and Lucas said grass. I picked a giant sequoia tree, so I could live a long, long life and see how the world changes.

This led the conversation into a whole new realm. We started talking celestial bodies. Nico wanted to be a star, like the sun. Lucas wanted to be the whole galaxy, and I thought it would be neat to be a planet. "Imagine if you were the whole universe, and you could throw galaxies at other universes?" Nico mused.