New babies!

No, not for me--our robin chicks arrived on Monday! As far as I can tell, without being too invasive, all four eggs have hatched. We've been so lucky to have them here. The nest is below eye level off the back porch, so we can observe them fairly easily. When I peek through the foliage of the climbing rose where the nest is, I now see a wriggling mass of pink fuzzy bird flesh.

Yesterday Doug saw Mama Bird bring over a worm. This week, too, I saw Papa Bird tending to the nest for the first time, along with the Mama.

It took three days for Mama to lay all four eggs (two the first day, then one each for two more days), then 15 days for all four eggs to hatch. By 14 days old, they will apparently be ready to fly. Robin development is amazingly swift!

When she was brooding, Mama Bird took off whenever we were on the back porch, but now that she's got nestlings, she usually stays in the nest even when the [human] kids crash out the back door and tear out into the yard. Her maternal instinct to protect her babies is strong in the face of the hellions!

I will try and take some more pictures of our new additions when they get a little more vertical. In the meantime, flickr has some amazing shots of other people's chicks. Enjoy!

Weekend Photo Recap

The perfect solstice weekend! 78 degrees, moderately humid, walking on the river, a beautiful evening wedding (thank you and congratulations again, K&J!), sleeping in Saturday, kids sleepover at grandma and grandpa's, strawberry picking/baking/jam making, 5 out of 6 meals eaten outdoors. Hooray for summer!

Our second clutch of robins, almost ready to hatch!

Mashing berries for jam requires The Tongue of Concentration.

Lunch at the kid's table.

My cheese puff.

Quotable

Sorry for all the quotes lately, but the monkeys are just cracking me up these days, like during this morning's drive to Grandma's house, behind a big delivery truck:

H: "I want to get a BIG stick, and hit the back of that truck so the door opens and I can get what's inside!"

S: "Hmmm.....what do you think is inside?"

H: "CUSTARD!"

[Grandma had lately been indulging his love of homemade flan.]

Zagat Jr.

H [pushing linguine around on plate]: "Well.... the truth is...I don't like the parsley."

The truth is??

Where do they pick these phrases up?

Top 5 Quotes to Remember from the Past Week

1. "Mommy, I don't think I'm ready for onions yet." (H)
[You are so good about trying new things, Harrison. You've tried onions a few times now, this time a wee bit of minced sweet onion in some macaroni salad I had made. So sweet and honest in your reaction.]

2. "Mamamamamamamamamamamamamamamama!" (G)
[All the way from your room to the kitchen on Wednesday, when I got back from my trip to Minneapolis and Daddy told you "Mommy's home!"]

3. "Night night!" after each page in Good Night, Gorilla. And then at the end, "MORE!?" (G)
[Repeat x's infinity.]

4. "I did arts and crafts all by myself!" (H)
[Proud collage artist.]

5. "Tomorrow is the next day after today!" (H)
[Good job after months of asking "Is tomorrow today?" Time is so abstract. Tomorrow must seem like it will never get here, especially when it holds the promise of a trip to the zoo or a run through the sprinkler.]

8:45 Sunday: Still in Bed