Monthly Archives: June 2009

Baby birds

In our little pine tree right outside the front door and in front of the porch, a robin got courageous enough to build a nest and lay four little blue eggs. Sonia and Olivia had been watching the nest for over a week to see what would happen. The parents were quite distressed about this early on but everyone has retreated into a mutual wariness that has allowed us to get a close up view of the robin parenting world.

Yesterday, by evening, 3 of the 4 eggs had hatched and we were able to witness the very early moments of baby robins. This is a first for all of us to see such a moment. They are very, very small, no larger than from the tip of your thumb to the first knuckle. Their eyes are unopened, their beaks are tiny, and they are comprised of mostly a head….a head that pops up in the air with beak wide open and thrusting out for food whenever there is movement close by. An extremely powerful instinct.

We’re anxious to see if the 4th egg will hatch and then watching the family grow inside their tiny nest. I will be interested to see how they manage in such a small space and how quickly it will be before the babies are booted out of the home. Food for thought on how I’ll be planning to get my baby robins out of our nest.

Still Don’t have that TSFA account setup

I’m so lazy…..or maybe it’s because we invested all our savings into finishing the basement. Well, almost finishing the basement. The flooring has been delayed for several weeks now due to the backorder dillemma that this ‘recession’ has caused. Once the floor’s in I’ll write up a nice post about the trials and tribulations of finishing a home in my neck of the woods, and the dealings with building inspectors.

Last Friday, on the eve of Christiens ‘8th month day’, he pulled himself to standing without other human assistance. Since his 2nd or 3rd month he’s always been an upright little guy, wanting to stand, walk or jump at every opportunity. So, he has had strong legs for quite some time, and coupled with his light weight, he’s been ‘EXTREMELY’ active since the get-go. So, now with this new-found confidence and his ability to crawl/scuttle very quickly, last Friday marks the end of being able to sit and watch him roll around in relative safety. Now, it’s on to constant observation and minimal rest.

We went to the Jays game last Saturday without Christien. It was a long time coming for Olivia to spend time alone with Sonia and I. She is excellent when it comes to sharing her time with Christien, and honestly I know his need for the lion’s share of attention has made me feel quite guilty and am quite sad when I look back over the last few months at the times where she obviously felt a little neglected. And I openly apologize for this. It is getting better now that he’s older and I’m very happy to be sharing my time more equally with both of them. The good news is that we still have our bond of making up our own songs and also singing along with our favourites in the car (some new ones: Solid Rock (Dire Straits), Match the Sun (Jane’s Addiction)).

Anyway, not much new here. Life moves on at work, spending a lot of time cleaning up around the house. Not really any noteworthy observations on a global scale lately….except that my theory of Obama is coming to fruition. Now that the honeymoon is over, he does seem a little more human and unexciting these days, doesn’t he? And a fun little tidbit: In the first 100 days of his presidency, he has spent more money than ALL OTHER PRESIDENTS COMBINED! That includes Monkey-Face.