Sometimes

Sometimes your five year old is playing with her cousin and they’re pretending to be leopards each with their own litter of cubs they’re raising. And sometimes your five year old wants to know which of her stuffed toys are similar enough to leopards to plausibly be used as cubs.

And sometimes you tell her that we have a way of telling which animals are related and how closely (she understands that DNA is a set of instructions on how to make a baby and that the baby’s instructions are a selection of some from each parent) and so you go online to find out which other species are in the genus Panthera.

And then sometimes you remember that you haven’t yet finished writing up her journal for the day with all her experiences and feelings and so you decide to add a little picture. But she can’t read all those words so you need some more pictures in the picture.

Sometimes.