Feathery Kids

One year ago our household was eagerly anticipating the arrival of these incredibly cute, little buggers.

The boys each picked their favorite and gave them a name: Boom, Boom, Buckbeak and Dottie.  Don and I named the last, fourth one Minerva (Minnie).

Don designed and built this beautiful coop.

And the chicks began turning into chickens...

A lover of animals and budding naturalist, Charlie was a natural with them from the beginning.

They imprinted with me and I was a goner.

They've been a source of entertainment...

And education...  Here's Charlie in the coop waiting to see Dottie lay one of her first few eggs.

They've provided food and the unique experience of knowing our food source; as well as the work and responsibilities involved in maintaining that...

They've tested our intellect, ingenuity and skills by pooping all over our deck and glorious backyard.  Because once you have chicken poop all over your yard you'll stop at nothing to contain it!  We feel cautiously hopeful about our latest solution, which includes a completely enclosed extra 25 feet of "chicken run"...

Here they are just a few days ago, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather, scratching for bugs and fertilizing our vegetable garden bed.

They've flown the coop many times to the neighbor's who don't mind at all.  The neighbors get a kick out of watching them, but we "apologize" with eggs anyway.  The family with young kids behind us love watching them over the fence.  The other evening they were peeking over the fence and giggling about the chickens for what seemed like an hour. In this time in our culture, where we tend relegate ourselves to life as very busy, nuclear families, these darn chickens have fostered a sense of community with our neighbors.

Our goals when we set out to have chickens were vague and varied.  Suffice to say, they've lived up to our expectations, and provided very much more than expected in very many ways.

It's been a fun, enlightening, first year with our feathery kids!

Sam's Future As a Mommy

As I mentioned in a previous post, the boys and I often chat about my experience of having been pregnant with each of them, as well as the stories of their births and the first few days of their lives.  They've always known they were born via C-section, but today they were particularly concerned with the surgical procedure.  They had questions.

"Where is the hole the doctor cut?"
"How did it close?"
"Did it hurt?"
"How could it not hurt?"
"How could you be awake and not feel it hurting?"

I explained the spinal block; where the shot goes, how it works to numb the body but allow one to stay awake.  Then I explained stitches, or, in my case, staples.  Sammy became quite agitated at this point.  The blood drained from his face and he got teary-eyed.  I thought he was worried about me, so I reassured him that it did not hurt and that the staples are, in fact, gone.  It turns out he was scared for himself because, in his words

"I want to be a mommy when I grow up and I don't want anybody to staple my tummy".

Sam has been expressing his desire to be a mommy when he grows up for a good couple of years now.  Charlie (ever the logical realist) keeps trying to "school" Sam in the impossibility of this.  Sam (ever the wanderer and keeper of his very own reality) continues to make plans for future mommy-hood.

A Little Gift

The boys and I often chat about my experience of having been pregnant with each of them, as well as the stories of their births and the first few days of their lives.  We all really enjoy these talks and never tire of them.  Some of the stories are so familiar that the boys now participate in the storytelling, vividly recounting bits and pieces; sometimes as if they were actual memories.

Today we spent a lot of time recounting and remembering how Sammy spent most of his time in utero curled up in a tight ball (right near mommy's heart), barely moving (especially once we hit 30 weeks).  We always laugh about how Sammy still didn't seem to want to stretch out once he was born.  We had to sort of peel his arms and legs away from his body to change his diaper.  Sammy, our little Ball of Baby.

Today Jack said, "Remember Sam, you were like a little ball when you came out of mom?"

And Sam responded "It's like I was a little gift".

Indeed.

Jacks

J to a pirate be-decked Disney World cast member:  You know there are two Jacks.  Jack Sparrow and Jack Me!

Memories

I lost our small video camera somewhere en route to our Disney World vacation and was pretty upset about it.  The camera itself was inexpensive, and neither Don or I were too broken up with respect to its monetary value.  However, it had a two minute video of us waking the kids at 4:30 AM that was just so precious and special.  In addition, I had had big plans for taking lots of videos on vacation so I was pretty bummed about the loss of those would-be videos.  We managed to take some videos on our camera, but there was a mere 14 minutes worth of available video space (over 9 days) versus the hour that was available on the video camera.  I was sad and disappointed that we wouldn't be able to capture as much on video as I had anticipated.  While I was in the process of trying to accept the loss C had this to say:

It's okay mom.  The memories are what really matters.

At the end of our first day in Disney World -

J to Dad:  I know who's the Disneyest of all.

Dad: Who?

J: Mickey Mouse!

Light Saber Duel-ese

J: My death is your death!

C: Enough with the silly talk! Game on!