Ducklings

Every three days or so the ducklings suddenly burst larger, like they are balloons and someone has taken a big breath and blown them up a bit more. They still divide their days with long naps (all in a heap), running sprints from one end of their playpen to the other, and paddling in their baby pool. The black runner (so far nameless but I'm leaning towards Darlene), is clearly the smartest. She's also the smallest and tends to get buried under her sisters when all four want to get into the baby pool all at the same time. (Like all batches of ducks, we have found, they are tied together by an invisible piece of elastic and are never more than 18" apart for more than a few seconds.) So, being half the size and about a 1/3 the weight of the blue and black swede ducks, she was getting a good squishing. So she struggled out, sprinted over to the food bowl and pretended to be tucking into a tasty morsel. The others saw her, got insatiably curious, and sprinted after. She then sprinted back to the pool, jumped in, and sunk down low so they couldn't see her in it. They then spent the next minute or so tusseling around, trying to figure out what was so amazing about the food while she enjoyed a relaxing soak by herself. The three figured it out eventually and then she was back on the bottom of the heap. So, that's how they spend THEIR days: