There are babies in the rhododendron bush outside my front window.
Baby robins of course (did you think there were human babies in the bush outside my house?)
And I am obsessed. And worried. They hatched today and I CRIED - because it is really cold here, we're in the middle of a 2 day cold snap - went down to 34 last night and will be 38 tonight. I have been watching this nest and mama robin for over a week now (when I first saw the nest and the tiny blue eggs inside of it!!!) and I thought they'd hatch this weekend but nope - they must have been there for a few days before I discoved them. I saw mama with her beak in the nest today and thought she was just moving the eggs around but when she left I saw a tiny sliver of very still pink ... so got a chair and climbed up and stuck my head out of the top of my front window so I could peer down into the bush and into nest - and saw 2 very small pink embryo type little birdie babies - and they looked so still my heart stopped - but then they squirmed a bit.
Called J sobbing though, sure they were going to die and so worried because it stayed very cool today.
He called our state Wildlife Center and they told him that when she is sitting in the nest - underneath her it's 106 degrees!!! That made me feel better - and I did see her feeding them a couple times today with little necks craned up to eat so they do appear to be alive. There also appeared to still be at least one egg when I looked earlier today so another may have hatched, we may be up to 3 .. not sure.
Wildlife Center also said you just have to let nature take its course, let mama do her thing, sometimes first broods of the season don't make it, but if she's there and sitting on them and feeding them - they have a good shot - and she is - so I'm hoping and trying not to obsess over them.
Oh - and this was awful - a strange orange CAT was in my driveway today and then walked up my front stairs TOWARD THE RHODODENDRON - I know he sensed them and prob smelled them too - I opened the door and chased him away but now that's another worry - her nest isn't high enough up. It's a very large rhododendron but still, not as high as a tree. Ugh!!! Nothing I can do though. Except hope for the best.
Send some T & P to my robin mama and her babies! I know I'm crazy! But I want them to make it. I've adopted them.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
I hope your Easter was better than mine...
I really didn't think we could top Christmas (J's brother threatening to punch him in the face) - but - we did! I am not sure how the family that travels 6 - 8 hours with a toddler is somehow always in the wrong - but - we are!
This trip got exciting when MIL lectured us about co-sleeping with Jack, how "it's wrong!" (said several times) and we "can do whatever we want with our child" (ya don't say) but she "says what she THINKS!"
I took deep breaths .. and blew it off. Oh, and this was after she threw a mini-tantrum because we went and got a pizza Saturday night because THERE WAS NO FOOD AND WE WERE STARVING ... a pizza that we brought back for everybody (along with a meatball hoagie that I cut up for Jack who, um, also needed to eat because he's a TODDLER.) We found out she was mad because she had wanted to cook a roast. Or so she told DH's brother. Except ... there was no roast. Hmmmm....
We had Easter brunch Sunday (instead of Easter dinner) and J's brother texted him that we were totally selfish and "that's EFFED!" that we changed the plans to brunch from dinner and he wasn't coming!
Except we didn't change the plans. We were informed of the change by MIL Friday night when we arrived in town. We could have cared LESS when or where we ate on Easter. But ... we're the villains, so it musta been our evil doing.
Earlier Easter morning MIL stormed out of the kitchen with a bowl of Kashi and locked herself in her bedroom for 3 hours because of something DH said, I can't even remember what.
Monday morning (MIL's birthday .... oops) she started on Jack. First she said it was FINE for him to play with the table pad "go ahead" in sugary fake voice and then "OK .. no. NO. NO!!" and then "OK ... go ahead." When I (nicely) said, "if you tell him no, don't then tell him yes, it will confuse him," I got:
"You have to tell him no sometimes!"
"Yes, that's fine, but if you tell him no, then yes, you'll confuse him and make him cry."
"Well sometimes he's gonna cry!"
"Right, but we don't need to MAKE him cry by confusing him."
"Well, OK, that's right, that's a good way to get back at me (huh?) but I only told him to go ahead because of that LOOK on your face!"
Funny ... she hadn't even looked up at me so I'm not sure how she saw my face.
Well ... that was it. I was shaking mad ... went in the bedroom and packed ... took Jack outside and then told FIL I didn't feel well (true) and wasn't going to eat breakfast (that she was making) and we were going to take a walk.
When I got back - she was gone, and never came back to say goodbye.
And the kicker!!!!! J ..... is mad ..... at ME!
Ta DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
(Qualifiers: MIL is old. And batty. I could've been the bigger person and ignored her. And sat and ate breakfast. Especially given that it was her birthday. But I had a human reaction and got angry. This is not new behavior on her part but I have ignored it in the past. But when it got personal with my baby... I got really ticked. I did not say anything rude. I just took a walk to cool off and blew off the scrambled eggs because I could not sit at the table with her at that point. But in acknowledging her nastiness AT ALL (you're not allowed to do that) I am very, very evil.)
Ugh. I don't ever want to go back. I really don't.
This trip got exciting when MIL lectured us about co-sleeping with Jack, how "it's wrong!" (said several times) and we "can do whatever we want with our child" (ya don't say) but she "says what she THINKS!"
I took deep breaths .. and blew it off. Oh, and this was after she threw a mini-tantrum because we went and got a pizza Saturday night because THERE WAS NO FOOD AND WE WERE STARVING ... a pizza that we brought back for everybody (along with a meatball hoagie that I cut up for Jack who, um, also needed to eat because he's a TODDLER.) We found out she was mad because she had wanted to cook a roast. Or so she told DH's brother. Except ... there was no roast. Hmmmm....
We had Easter brunch Sunday (instead of Easter dinner) and J's brother texted him that we were totally selfish and "that's EFFED!" that we changed the plans to brunch from dinner and he wasn't coming!
Except we didn't change the plans. We were informed of the change by MIL Friday night when we arrived in town. We could have cared LESS when or where we ate on Easter. But ... we're the villains, so it musta been our evil doing.
Earlier Easter morning MIL stormed out of the kitchen with a bowl of Kashi and locked herself in her bedroom for 3 hours because of something DH said, I can't even remember what.
Monday morning (MIL's birthday .... oops) she started on Jack. First she said it was FINE for him to play with the table pad "go ahead" in sugary fake voice and then "OK .. no. NO. NO!!" and then "OK ... go ahead." When I (nicely) said, "if you tell him no, don't then tell him yes, it will confuse him," I got:
"You have to tell him no sometimes!"
"Yes, that's fine, but if you tell him no, then yes, you'll confuse him and make him cry."
"Well sometimes he's gonna cry!"
"Right, but we don't need to MAKE him cry by confusing him."
"Well, OK, that's right, that's a good way to get back at me (huh?) but I only told him to go ahead because of that LOOK on your face!"
Funny ... she hadn't even looked up at me so I'm not sure how she saw my face.
Well ... that was it. I was shaking mad ... went in the bedroom and packed ... took Jack outside and then told FIL I didn't feel well (true) and wasn't going to eat breakfast (that she was making) and we were going to take a walk.
When I got back - she was gone, and never came back to say goodbye.
And the kicker!!!!! J ..... is mad ..... at ME!
Ta DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
(Qualifiers: MIL is old. And batty. I could've been the bigger person and ignored her. And sat and ate breakfast. Especially given that it was her birthday. But I had a human reaction and got angry. This is not new behavior on her part but I have ignored it in the past. But when it got personal with my baby... I got really ticked. I did not say anything rude. I just took a walk to cool off and blew off the scrambled eggs because I could not sit at the table with her at that point. But in acknowledging her nastiness AT ALL (you're not allowed to do that) I am very, very evil.)
Ugh. I don't ever want to go back. I really don't.
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