Bioluminescence

Moments ago, Brad and I were tucking our sweet Baby Jack into bed.  Every night before bed, we read a book, and tonight Jack chose to hear a book of ocean poems, called Commotion in the Ocean.  In the poem about deep sea creatures, there is a line that says, "But the strangest of them all have glowing whiskers on their chins."

It was at this point that I prompted Jack to ask Daddy why fish have glowing whiskers on their chins, thinking that Daddy would explain that other fish are attracted to the light and then get eaten.  However, Daddy lunged in with this:

"Bioluminescence...there are teeny, tiny organisms that give off light that live on their whiskers..."

At which point I took over and tried to explain that other animals see the light, get close, and then get eaten.  The ENTIRE time I was talking, Jack's facial expression said very clearly that he believed I did not know what I was talking about.  He turned back to Daddy and said, "So, Daddy...what did you say?"

Brad finished his overly-scientific response, and our sweet Baby Jack?

Yeah.

He turned to me and said, "See Mommy, that's why they have those glowing whiskers."

{I finally got Hannah's birth story typed up, and I back-dated it to shortly after she was born for our family records.  If you're interested, you can read it here.  Also coming soon, I'm going to back-blog a bunch of journal entries I kept after Jack was born as well.  One of the projects I hope to complete before my maternity leave is over...more on that later.}