i've started asking
li to occupy himself quietly while i nurse
fi down for her nap. a couple of weeks ago, i left him to play with trucks and
playdough. he comes in the room, asking for leftover chocolate cake. i say yes, he can have it when i get up, thinking we'll split it. we go over this several times and then he leaves the room. then, i hear him opening the plastic container from the restaurant, helping himself to a fork while i continue to lull
fi to sleep.
a few minutes later, he reappears with crumbs and frosting smears all around his mouth and he gingerly climbs on the futon next to me, keeping his sticky sweet hands in fists to prevent dirtying the sheets. "mama, i don't know where that cake is, i didn't see it." i suppress a laugh and ask what is all that chocolate on his face? he thinks a second and says, "well, that was there from all day". ha!
above is what i found after fi dozed off. i love the incompleteness of their attempts at deception at age 3.5; he has no thought of hiding the evidence, for example. perhaps this will be less amusing when he is older...
here is a newborn cardinal and several siblings in the nest. alas, he/she is no more. the nest was found toppled, a wing on the ground, and little feathers scattered about. and one egg on the ground which inspired me to do some research. it's pretty tricky to incubate a bird egg--the temp. must remain within a constant and narrow range. those eggs are pretty smart really, better not to hatch at all than hatch with no mama/papa around! and, i learned of the very high baby bird mortality rates. i found an odd comfort in that--as if maybe it was too much to expect two batches of cardinals to survive in one season. and soon after i did see a trio of carolina wren babies in the maple so that lifted my spirits. here is one of them:
