Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Oh, and when you throw my daughter's favorites into the mix, you can add "and jellyfish, and penguins and Nemo," too.

I had the honor of taking my four-year-old daughter to the Pittsburgh Zoo several weeks ago, where she met up with her preschool classmates for a morning filled with giggles, snacks and more "eeewwws" and "aaahhhs" than a Zambelli fireworks show.

For the record, I'll be the first to state that the trip was more memorable for me personally than any fireworks show.

As a father, I do my best to find teachable moments for both of my kids. Sometimes I do really well at this, and other times, I fumble horribly. The trip to the zoo, however, was something totally different.

That day, my daughter taught me things about myself and our relationship.

First, and foremost, is the fact that, yes, I really can be a good dad and that girls are not too scary — at least not at four-years-old. All bets are off when she turns 15 and wants to go on a date, or when she's 18 and is ready to move onto college, or God forbid, the day I have to walk her down the aisle. I can't even go there.

But for that one day, she was all mine and I was all hers. There were no phones to answer, bills to pay or places to go (aside from the aquarium to see the "jelly's" as we call them.)

She learned that penguins aren't just the hockey guys I watch on television, and we both determined a Hammerhead shark's head really looks like a T-square instead.

Did you know that cotton candy goes well with orange juice, or that a chocolate chip cookie is the perfect snack before eating a healthy lunch?

I know all about my daughter's best friends John, Caroline, Sarah, Grace, Ashley and Emily, and I know that both of her teachers are the coolest people in the world.

It became apparent to me that she's always hot and hates to wear long sleeves, even when the wind is blowing and the sun is behind clouds. I'm that way, too.

My daughter's sense of humor is just like mine — something I discovered when we both laughed out loud at the same time while watching the seals doing something silly. Even her crooked little grin is similar to mine.

And I also learned just how smart she is. Not just book smart, but the kind of smart that can deduce things from a set of circumstances. That's probably more of her mom than me, which is probably another reason I love both of them so much.

We both agreed that Wendy's has the best French fries, but we argued over our favorite sport. Some day, she will learn that hockey is better than anything else, but at least we agree that Brett Favre should have been a Steeler, not a Packer.

Holding her hand and loading her into the car that day, her smile told me more than any amount of words could about how she felt toward me. But she somehow knows that her old dad needed reassurance, so she said, "Thanks Daddy. I had a great day with you."

The irony, of course, is that we were leaving the zoo. A place that is notorious for wild animals kept inside cages. Some day, when my daughter gets older, I will actually be sending her out into the wild world, completely uncaged and unprotected. Yet I know she's my best girl because of a simple trip to the zoo.