Liopleurodon

3 Years: “I have a bunch of little toy extinct reptiles. I have… a Parasuarolophus, a Brachiosaurus, an Apatosaurus, a Compsugnathus, a Maiasaur, a Pterosaur, a Dimetrodon, and… OH MY GOD. I don’t have a toy Liopleurodon!” 

My daughter’s second-longest-lasting obsession was with dinosaurs. For the better part of a year, she lived and breathed dinosaurs, and it took only a month or two before her level of knowledge outpaced mine. She could tell a Chasmosaurus from a Triceratops, a Deinonychus from a Velociraptor, and a Stegoceras from a Micropachycephalosaurus. (The fact that she could say “Micropachycephalosuarus,” alone, was enough to amaze me.)

Of course, the thing that made this phase especially amusing and adorable was the number of scientific-sounding Latin syllables she blurted out in what was, to her, completely normal conversation. This one little gem of an observation arose when she was playing by herself and taking a census of the creatures in her toy collection. I ordered her a toy Liopleurodon that day, even though I first had to use Google to figure out what it was and how to spell it.