Corin has a plastic hippopotamus who lost a leg on the front lines (otherwise known as the treacherous ground between Corin’s door and any other spot in his room). Our conversation about this hippopotamus went as follows.

Corin: My hippo is brokted. His leg is missing.

Me: I see that. That’s too bad. But do you think he can still do a lot of the things hippos like to do?

Corin: No….?

Me: I bet he can. He might have to work harder or do things a little differently, but I bet he could still figure out how to eat and swim and play with the other hippos, don’t you?

Corin: Yeah! He can still swim!

I felt quite proud of this teachable moment. As it turns out, however, hippos don’t actually swim. It also occurred to me as I was talking that in reality, a wild hippo missing a leg probably wouldn’t survive very long. My dad provided the obvious answer: this, of course, is a zoo hippo.