"Daddy? Why are the animals in sauce? I thought they can only be in boxes?"

Nick looked over at the small child, whom sat at the kitchen table eating a bowl of Zoodles.

"They can come in sauce too, Honey," he assured his baby girl.

"But won't they drown?"

Nick chuckled. "No, Baby. They won't drown. You eat them up too fast for that."

"But not always. They too hot. An' whatta 'bout the ones on the bottom?"

Nick went over to the table and scooped his little girl up, and sat down in her chair with her in his lap.

"Lacey, the ones on the bottom are helping the ones on top swim. And once those ones are eaten all up and in your tummy, the ones on the bottom get a chance to swim, until there's nothing left for them to swim in."

"But won't the ones on the bottom drown 'cause they're down there too long, Daddy?"

"No, Baby," Nick sighs some. "They're fine. You eat them up pretty quick when they're not too hot."

"C'n I play with 'em, Daddy?"

"No. You can't play with them."

"Why not?"

Nick looked down into the little pair of blue eyes staring up at him. "Because they'll get you and everything else all messy and you'll need a bath."

"But I like baths."

"Well, Daddy doesn't."

"But the animals wanna play."

"And Daddy said they can't. They have to stay in the bowl, or go into your tummy. No in between stuff."

"But Daddy!"

"Lacey!" Nick whined back, after hearing his little girl whine. "They want to be eaten up, so they can swim in your tummy. You have a playground in there for them."

"Really?"

Nick tried not to laugh, as his daughter lifted her shirt up and looked down at her stomach, patting it.

"I gots a playground, Daddy? Do the box animals gets to play on its too?"

"Sure, Baby," Nick nodded. "They get to play too. All the animals in your tummy get to play on it."

"Do you gots an animal playground, Daddy?"

"Yes, Honey," Nick smiled. "Daddy has an animal playground too. So does Mommy, Uncle Brian, Aunt Leighanne, Uncle Kevin, Aunt Kristin, Uncle A.J., and Uncle Howie."

"Buts Mommy gots baby in her tummy," Lacey reminds him. "animals gots no room to play?"

"They have plently of room, Sweetie," Nick assured her. "Now, eat your animals before they get too cold."

The little golden-haired girl with chubby cheeks and blue eyes dug into her bowl of animals, and began to eat them - with little help from her Daddy, anytime she dropped some onto the table by accident.

"Daddy, tell animals they can'ts play on the table."

Nick leaned down to the bowl. "Now, listen up there, you crazy animals," he began. "I said no playing on the table, so no playing on the table. You're to jump into my baby's mouth, and play on that playground she's got in there. Now, git."

There was a bunch of giggles, and more failed attempts to get the animals into the small mouth trying to eat them. The small child finally ate up as much as she could, then gave up.

"They wants to plays on the table, Daddy."

"Bad animals. Bad," Nick scolded the remaining animals in the bowl. "You'll just have to go in the trash then. No playground for you."

He stifled a chuckle as he watched the child in his lap lean down to listen to the animals, thus getting her hair in the sauce.

"They wanna go park, Daddy!"

"Well, then tell them they'd better get into your tummy them."

The little girl nodded and ate up the rest of the animals in her bowl. "All gone! They plays in the park!"

Nick smiled. "Well, that's good. And I think it's time you went and played little mermaid in the tub."

"Yay! Baths time!"

"Then you can have some box animals and a cartoon, then a potty break and a story, then bed," Nick continued.

"Box animals! Yay!"

Nick laughed, as he watched his little girl squirm out of his lap and run off into the next room.

"Momma! Momma! Daddy saids I gets box animals after bath 'cause I ates up all my saucey animals!"