Sparrow in the hands of Zoe

I was driving back home from picking up dinner this afternoon, going down a busy street (Guadalupe) during rush hour, with Zoe and Paige in the back. I was at a stoplight and I saw a small bird rolling around on the road, flapping around. The light turned green and cars started going, the bird rolled right in front of my car. I put on my hazards, got out and picked up the young sparrow in my right hand. I got back in the car and drove with my left hand. The bird was in shock for about 5 minutes. I called Nikki and asked her to meet me in front of the house with a cat carrier so we could put the sparrow in it. As I was coming down the street I noticed the sparrows look changed, it closed its beak, and her eyes became more alert and she started looking around. I arrived home and got out of the car. We all sat in the front yard and looked at the sparrow in my hand. Zoe asked to hold her so I gently placed the sparrow in her hands. I asked Nikki where the camera was. Zoe held the sparrow for about a minute when all of the sudden the sparrow flew off quickly into the sky. Nikki and I let out a visceral "Yay!" Zoe started to cry. We asked her what was wrong, she said "I wanted to keep her". We explained how it was a very good thing that the sparrow was ok and able to be free again. It took her a little bit but she understood. Now she is happy that she was able to hold a wild bird in her hand and watch it take off.

On a side note, I think people dont stop in traffic sometimes if they see and injured animal because they feel other people will get mad because they are being inconvenienced by having to pause for a minute. When I got out of the car and was coming back with the bird in my hand I glanced at the driver behind me. He was a middle aged bearded man, he looked at me and nodded with approval. I am very happy I stopped.

Photo of Paige taken on her 1st birthday!

Happy Birthday Paige!!!!! 1 year old!! We Love You!!!

Spring Photos

Hare Krishnas having fun at SXSW

Zoe's Story

I'm magic.

You can't see me.

I disappeared.

I went into a flower and turned into a bee.

I went far, far away to New York City and there are lots of flowers there.

...pause...

I sipped nectar from an orange flower.

I'm back.

Happy Birthday Nikki!!!!

We love you very much! Skip, Zoe, Paige, Miro and Sophie

Zoe chooses 'none of the above'

I'm so proud of my Zoe. We have been giving her Hobson's Choice to get her to do things and about a week ago she said she didn't want to do either of the choices. Our smart girl is able to see past the framed choices and see she has other options. There are many adults who fall for Hobson's Choice, albeit more complicated ones, but still..very proud she can see past it. It makes things a bit harder for us, but its a good thing!

Paige (future Cirque Du Soleil performer)

Springtime!

Zoe the flower

Zoe is a daisy in the photo. I picked her and brought her home and put her in a vase with some water (aka a bathtub).

Paige making lizard noises

Paige is a girl on the move. Just after turning 9 months she figured out that she could crawl from room to room. There's be no stopping her since then. She's also a climber. She can climb onto the bed, up on chairs, and attempts to climb the dresser and highchair but Skip and I sure spoil sports. And 2 days ago she learned to get off the bed on her own! She'll walk if you hold her hand, but she's happy to cruise around the room holding on to furniture or to do what we call her crawl run.

Paige has a few words. She says "mama", "dada", and we think that her name for Zoe is "baba". She has tried to say "cat" a couple of times but it comes out "caw". She signs "milk", "more", her own version of "all done", and waves hello and goodbye.

Her favorite activities include:

- banging on the mirror and laughing

- jumping on the bed with Zoe

- standing in the rocking chair and rocking

- trying to lick our kitten Sophie

Favorite foods:

- Chuy's Tex-Mex

- strawberries

- bagels

- crackers

- olives

Paige squishes up her nose when she smiles. Oh, and now she tells Zoe "no". Being a second child is so different than being a first.

Snow in Austin today

Zoe

Zoe has been expanding her vocabulary. Here are a few quotes from today:

Paige puts USB cable in her mouth.

Me: Not for your mouth, Paige.

Zoe to me: Paige put that in her mouth intentionally.

While we were all pretending to be other things...

Zoe: Daddy is a concept.

Now she couldn't expand on what she meant by that, but it was the first time she's experimented with that word.

I told Zoe that I saw a tree out of the corner of my eye and at first I thought it was a person. She replied: You just realized that it was a tree?

Zoe also invented a friend named Gwendoline who has brown hair, pink eyes and likes to "knock things over."