It was THIS big!

Some of the ideas Kieran comes up with just amaze me. We have a book that we read daily called "My Grandma and Me." In said book, the grandma takes the grandchild fishing (the text reads: "we like to go fishing without any hooks"). At one point months ago, I casually mentioned that Auntie Shawna (or "YaYa," as Kieran calls her) loves to go fishing.

Two weeks ago, we were playing at a park with a fishing pond. We happened to be on the dock when a little boy and his parents caught a fish. Kieran didn't seem terribly interested, but that night he started grabbing at the page about fishing and saying "YaYa!" while doing the sign for fish. This happened every time we read the book. I would ask him "do you want to go fishing?", and he would practically scream "Yeah! YaYa!", while frantically signing fish.

It got to the point where I hid the book, he was so upset about wanting to fish. It was a classic fixation.

Finally, I broke down and begged Shawna to come fish with us. She fishes all the time, and we already had an understanding that she would be taking Kieran on his first fishing expedition - we just didn't know it would be this soon.

Shawna showed up yesterday with a kid-sized fishing pole. Kieran was fascinated. We drove to the pond and Kieran made a beeline for the dock.

Within minutes of Shawna and Kieran putting the hook in the water, they had their first bite. Whatever was on the line was pulling so hard, I started getting worried that we'd find a turtle.

When we got our first glimpse of what was at the end of the line, Shawna and I squealed so loudly that we drew an audience.

Kieran's first catch was a catfish - and he was a big'un! Probably two pounds or so. We had to walk the line around the dock so Shawna could climb down into the weeds to pull him out of the water. Kieran was not quite as excited. He was pretty hesitant to touch his first fish, but he did manage to swipe a quick finger down the catfish's soft, slimy side.

In the thirty minutes we were there, Kieran caught 6 or 7 fish: one catfish and the rest bluegill. He loved putting the bobber in the water, he was a little reluctant to pull a fish back out.

It was an awesome first experience fishing for him! Of course the first time he ever goes to a different lake, he'll wonder why the fish aren't biting every five minutes.  ;)