Totem

Child 2 has been tasked to create a family totem "pole." The pole is actually a bunch of strips of paper all taped together - originally meant to be a cylinder but after a bit of grumbling now a long flat... thing.

The point was to choose a totem animal for each family member, explain why it was chosen and then do a drawing. Child 2 hemmed and hawed for a week over this and then came up with the following:

Kirk is a griffin: brave, intelligent etc etc.

Child 3 is a shark - not sure what the reasoning there was. Originally Child was going to be a lemur but Child 2 was restricted in the number of "invented" or non-Native American totems it could choose so it plumped for shark instead. I have a small hunch that sharks are easier to draw...

Child 1 is a wasp. This produced a howl from Child 1 but Child 2 quickly announced it was because "industrious" was a major trait of the wasp totem. It might also have mumbled something about how "louse" was a real genuine and well respected totem and some people should be grateful.

Child 2 itself is a raccoon. I had suggested badger on the basis that they are loyal, brave, tenacious, and very grumpy if you try to roust them out of their sett. Child considered this but went with raccoon because it knew how to draw one.

And me?

I'm a penguin.

Don't ask.