Mr. Birdie Pays a (short) Visit

Jack came running in to me this afternoon as I was typing an email. Mommy, I have to show you something in the backyard. It's something sad. It turned out to be a dead (or so we thought) bird. Shelby had grabbed it. Then - it breathed! It was wet and red, but it had been raining, so I picked it up to see if it was bleeding or not, and how badly injured it was. It sad there in my hand, blinking up at me. Now there was part of me that said I should just put the poor thing down and walk away, let nature take it's course. Or perhaps that was Shelby's thoughts I was overhearing. Whatever, with tiny little Mr. Birdie sitting quietly in my hand and blinking up at me, passively, there was no way I could drop it into the gaping maw of my suddenly evil dog. (Actually in this, as in everything else, she showed her wonderful personality. She just sat quietly by waiting for me to be done looking at her great accomplishment, patiently waiting for it to be dinnertime!) So, I shooed Shelby into the house, found a safe place for birdie to lie, and came into the house.

Then, it occurred to me to email Uncle Hugh, the ornithologist. He, unfortunately, made the off-hand suggestion that I could find a shoebox for it and possibly nurse it back to health. SO here is Mr. Birdie in his nice new home, having been recently plied with drops of sugar water.

Alas, there is no happy ending to our story. Jack and I went off to take a nap, and while we were sleeping, Mr. Birdie entered his eternal rest.

Shelby's Shame

Family Home Evening tonight was AWESOME. First we sang..and I mean, WE sang. All three of us. Can I tell you how long I've been trying to get Jack to sing with us? No, I can't, because it's been so long I've lost track. But tonight, he did! And so did Mike! Two songs!!! And then, he (Jack) gave the lesson. It was a very cute retelling of Jesus feeding the five thousand. Went a little something like this: All these people came to Jesus because they hoped he would bless them. And he said, Come on, come on, come with me. And he blessed them. Then, it started to be dark-time and they were all hungry but all they had were were two bread and five fish. But Jesus blessed the food and made a miracle and they all ate. And there were leftovers! So later, when the people were hungry again, they could eat more.

On to activity. Much to Shelby's dismay, we did not all head into the backyard to play with her, which is what she thought at first. Oh no! The hose came out and Miss Shel got a much-deserved bath. She is still skulking around and shooting us dirty looks! Midway through the bath, Jack -- holding the hose, mind you -- said, "Oh, Shelby, it's ok. I know you are having a really hard day."

Then, having finally managed to get us all working bikes, we took off on a tour of the neighborhood. It was really lovely! Jack pedaled away like mad on his little bike with one training wheel, being very careful to stop and look for cars at every intersection. And being even more careful to tell me to stop if I managed to get ahead of him and call "I'm the winner" whenever he was ahead. Finally, home for ice cream, scriptures, stories and bed. It was really a lovely lovely way to spend the evening.

Since bedtime, however, we've had a long parade of reasons for Jack to come out of his room. I suppose this isn' t too surprising as he did have a nap today. He was sent off to his room mid-afternoon for being first, disobedient and second, disrespectful (he called me baby, which , sweetly, is the worst epithet he can think of.) I went in to tell him when his time out was over and he'd fallen asleep on his bed. (Probably explains the misbehaving.) As I was walking back out, my little man woke up and said, Momma, I want you to sleep by me for a little while. Now who can resist an invitation like that? So, long bike ride and dog-bathing notwithstanding, Jack didn't exactly feel like going to sleep at bedtime. At last count I believe we've had four trips to the potty, one trip to tell me something that just couldn't wait but which he then couldn't think of, one trip to ask why his door was shut, and three or four trips to find out when I was going to sleep and could he come with me because "he's lonely".

Weekend at Nanny's

Despite whopping four dollar a gallon gas prices, the family made an escape this weekend down to visit Nanny and DocDoc on the farm. Their land is out really and truly in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by farmland and a nature preserve and it is absolutely gorgeous this time of year (and through the summer, if you don't mind the humidity wilting you by 10 am.) After a two year saga, DocDoc's pond is finally full and holding water, much to the delight of the frog population, which is surging. To our delight, as well, as we got to sit out by the pond, roasting hot dogs and enjoying the frog-chorus. Jack proved again that he is one of us, a pyro at heart, and spent the whole night poking at the fire

-- when he wasn't walking around the pond with me seeing what he could find.

(What he could find turned out to be a baby frog. Isn't he cute? Terrified, but cute.) I have to admit to being a bit proud of myself for picking up little froggie. Count that as one of the talents motherhood has brough to me. In needing to appear nonchalant before my wildly exploriative son, I've found that froggies aren't half bad, really. This one was so small I couldn't even feel him in my hand.


Highlight for Jack, or so he thought, was getting to spend the night out in the caravan with Nanny. Stay tuned for an eyewitness report of how that went from the Old Girl herself. Meanwhile, enjoy these two shots. The first is of Jack's new hero, IndieInnie Jones. If you look closely at the table, you can see he's holding a whip. The hat is a Nannie original . She found it in a thrift shop and dyed it the right color -- apparently it took her three days of trying to get it dark enough!! The other shot is Mike's -- from a cool series he took while fiddling around with around with our camera.