Baby Birds

Early June I discovered a nest in the wreath hanging on my front door. I monitored it for a few days hoping that an egg might appear and, low and behold, it did! The girls were super excited to watch the nest fill with eggs. It was always a mystery as to how many eggs would be waiting for us the next morning. We went from one to two and back to one again. The pattern continued until we were set with four eggs. The girls got to where they could predict where the mother bird would land (while chirping her head off) when we would pull the door open to take a peek at the eggs. "Baby bird, baby bird," was often heard whenever the girls were near the front door. They always wanted to look. At first, Adeline was very nervous about the wreath - wavy branches of flowers threatening to touch her - but she soon was asking for up too.

The above put me right to work on making journals for the girls to use when recording their observations. Call it the teacher in me or the compulsion I have to keep things together and neat! I will admit, it was also an opportunity to work with Adeline on gluing, retelling and focusing on a task. After each journal session I was sweaty and sometimes frustrated but we got through them. The girls LOVED them. Adeline started out by only making one or two marks on the page but later on was asking for me to draw things that she could color. She didn't improve much in gluing. She uses a glue stick and will put the glue on the wrong side of the paper. Lila just gets how to glue but Adeline will need lots of practice. She doesn't use her opposing hand to stabilize the paper either which well below her developmental age. Between Adeline's need of constant help and Lila's lack of patience/need to do everything NOW, I was working over time. Not to mention Savannah's help when spelling words.

In the end the journals came out really nice. The girls can look at them and count the eggs, label the baby birds and mama bird while showing some pride in their work.

Unfortunately, the baby birds were born with a cloud of bad luck looming over their nest. About 48 hours after hatching, the baby bird would disappear. The mama bird chucked the last two babies (at least that is what I think happened) and abandoned the remaining egg which still sits in the nest right before we left for the beach. The birds were interesting while they lasted. Thankfully, Savannah handled their premature nest departure pretty well and, well, the twins are too young to question it.

Here is a video of our birds, journals and fun.

Favorites

We are back and settling in. I am starting to go through pictures and have pulled a few favorites that I am considering for our mantel.

Looking at these pictures reminds me of what a wonderful time we had. The girls were really good and fully enjoyed themselves. In the end, that is really all I wanted -my girls to have fun while surrounded with love. When I sit on the beach looking at the three of them play I can't help but be overcome with all the blessings we have been given. I never imagined us vacationing like a "regular" family two years ago. Regular we are - well sometimes and this vacation was one of those times.

Alex and I had to laugh when we arrived at the beach with NO OXYGEN. We made lists which included cannulas, lines, Tegaderm, nebs and meds but I guess we didn't include O2 tanks. It was more amusing than scary because we were pretty confident we wouldn't run into any trouble. In fact, we escaped conjunctivitis and a stomach bug that were running through the other families in the house. Not bad for a little girl that touched her toes on the sand for the first time at 10lbs, on the O's and nearly one year of age.



Some pictures from this year. . .

Scenes from the Beach

The 4th of July

Beach time
Mermaids

The Jump-Jump

Happy 4th of July

We are still continuing our fun in the sun. The girls are very content and the parents are actually enjoying some "chair time."

Lila Grace is a dream come true on the beach. She follows the big kids around, plays in the sand endlessly and doesn't wade too far into the the surf. She is a delight to watch. Savannah is also having a wonderful time. She ventures out into the waves solo this year and feels pretty confident in the water. Adeline doesn't love the sand or the surf. She would rather spend time in the stroller or in the wading pool that we have on the beach. She requires shoes and every once in a while overcomes her sensory overload and digs in the sand or jumps in the tidal pools. She still manages to have fun out on the beach. It is baby steps for her this year.

This 4th of July we plan to make lots of red, white and blue desserts, spend much of the day in on the beach and finish our holiday on our deck watching the fireworks light up the water. We hope you have a safe and happy holiday as well.

Holden Beach Here We Come!!

This past Sunday, we packed up the kids, gear and smiles and trekked on down to Holden Beach, North Carolina. We weren't sure if the girls would survive the 12+ hour drive so we added a stop at the Baltimore Zoo for a distraction. This zoo has a neat giraffe exhibit where you can hand feed them. Adeline is still in love with giraffes, possibly stemming from her extended stay in a giraffe isolette in the NICU, and we were very excited to give her a glimpse of a real giraffe close up. Unfortunately, the giraffes weren't into feeding but they were a hit nonetheless. Adeline who is typically scared to death in a zoo situation was trying to climb in the exhibit. I was delighted to see that she got as much enjoyment out of the her long-necked friends as I was hoping.

Here she is trying climb in

At the same time that we were happy to see Adeline exercising her brave side, Savannah decided to hop on a camel. This is pretty out of character for her which made her parents really proud. She had a great time perched between the humps.

Before we packed them up for the rest of the 12 hour ride, we had a lunch at the zoo. Lucky for the girls there was play equipment. I was thrilled to see the Belle scale the equipment. She is always a bit timid and suffers from overall weak muscles which typically prevents her from doing hard climbing. Well, climb she did and once up on top, she was able to do her favorite playground pass time. She swings out above any slide that has a bar above it. She was feeling particularly feisty today as she really caught some air.

Just for the record, we powered through and gave up our hotel reservation. We left the house at 9:00 am and arrived at the beach house at 11:00 pm. The girls were fantastic travelers which made both parents very thankful.

We have enjoyed the past three days in perfect weather and perfect company. Here is a shot of the girls saying, "Hurray, we are on vacation!"

The Mind of a 5 Year Old

As I was driving Savannah to piano lessons this morning, she asked, "Did the road builders have to dig out these roads to make them?" I tried to briefly indulge her in the history of roads and how they most likely started over time and only recently have become these elaborate paved passage ways. This took her mind back to what she calls the "old fashions."

S: Well was this road a dirt road when Laura (Ingalls) was a girl?

Me: Maybe

S: Why was Laura scared of Native Americans?

Me: She hadn't seen people that didn't speak her language or look like her before? The Native Americans were scared of her too?

S: Why?

Me: Laura and the Native Americans were different from each other. They did things in a different way, dressed differently and spoke differently. Sometimes different seems scary. But now, we know that EVERYBODY is different and different is good.

S: How could the Native Americans be scared of Laura?

Me: Maybe they thought she was going to hurt them or that her Pa was going to do something mean to them. They couldn't understand each other because they didn't speak the same language.

S: Would they be scared of me if I lived in the old fashions?

Me: Probably a little.

S: What if I made the Native Americans a card? Then would they have known how sweet I am?

Oh, if world peace could be tackled with a card.

Please don't fault me for my lack of indepth explinations. I was pretty bleary eyed after 6 hours of sleep.

Rain Rain Go Away

After a pretty rainy week and very rainy day, the girls were busting down the door in order to play outside. A brief cloud break fooled us into the thinking the storm was over. Boy were we wrong. The girls didn't seem to mind though. Well, Adeline wasn't so hot on the rain but did eventually run around barefoot on the wet surfaces. Savannah and Lila are just getting started in the video below. Soon, they were off to find the biggest puddle. There was no shortage of big puddles after this much rain.

Listen for the thunder at the end of the video (it is 2.5 minutes so hang in their until the end)