Mama's disappoint and delight, Mama’s new fledgling

Mama had a rough morning yesterday. She and Cori talked fairly early in the day and Cori told Mama that it was not immediately necessary that she be there with her at the birth. Mama took it pretty hard and thereby suffered a little wounding in the thought that her children no longer need her. I know that was not the intent of the conversation so I just bided my time. (Mama is usually pretty quick to recover from such thoughts.)

Sure enough, that afternoon Cori called Mama back and the two of them talked further about the timing of her arrival. With three children old enough to really know the significance of the event about to take place it will be kind of neat to let the birth and homecoming happen in as typical a setting as the home can provide – without distractions or additional persons to interrupt the mix.

I believe mommy and daddy need that moment with the children before the cooing and fawning over the new arrival by the adoring herds of matrons (Mama included) begins to steal the focus from the children already in the home. It may be better said that I think the very immediate family members need their moments with little Savanah before they have to share her with everyone else. (That should ware off after a couple days for everyone under ten years old.) Then Grammy and Papi can swoop in to stir the excitement in the home for a week or so.

With that in mind we have booked Mama a ticket to Florida next Thursday. I told you I would not be able to hold out too long giving Mama what she wants. (I’m getting better. I made it a whole 24 hours.) It seemed reasonable to get her there ahead of me and Victoria because the week we will be spending with Nate, Cori and the grandkids in August will not be enough for Mama. It never is. She keeps telling me I have plenty of vacation and that I should be using it up. She is probably right but I am always a bit overwhelmed when I come back and try to catch up.

I knew Mama was better yesterday morning when she called me to tell me that Sasha had brought a very young bird into the yard. She was carrying the recently hatched youngling in her mouth but had not injured it in the least – except for the slobbers. Mama had gotten it from the dog and flicked away all the ants that had begun to swarm it and did not know what to do with it.

I suggested she put it in the cage we had used for the parakeets – which is exactly what she did. That is where it was when I got home. In fact she had brought it into the house because she thought it was too hot outside for the bitty thing. Victoria and I argued the contrary – that it needs to be warm; very warm in order to survive. We all finally settled on putting it in the garage.

Mama had it on a towel and it did not look comfortable to her so she scooped up some of the dried grass from the recent cutting of the lawn and put that in the cage, whereupon the fledgling scooted over into the familiar medium. That really excited Mama and Victoria.

We are not sure what species of bird we have – perhaps a Mockingbird or perhaps a dove. Time will tell if the tiny thing actually survives.