New Life!

The boys have really been noticing different sounds they hear. For example, when I get them up from their naps, they start signing dog and point out the window to where the barking is coming from. If we have the windows open, and they hear a helicopter, they start signing helicopter, speak a foreign language, and point out the window. A few weeks ago they started noticing birds landing on the wall, outside our kitchen window. That's when we noticed that a bird had made a nest on top of the wall, where a flowering vine had grown over from our neighbor's side. The boys kept saying bird, signing bird, and pointing out the window.





It was fun to watch. I realize it was hard to see anything, other than the bird sitting there, but it was interesting. Every day Leigha would run to the window to check on the bird. She was excited, so we talked about what the bird was doing. However, last week we had some terrible winds and a drop in the temperature. All of a sudden, the bird was gone. We aren't sure what happened to it, but we have decided to just assume that everything was fine (yes, I love denial!).

At school, it was time for the life cycle! The first grade classrooms were working on two different projects. Remember those lovely Crayfish and Beetles I got to deal with last fall? They got caterpillars and chicken eggs! Don't you think we got the raw end of this deal? Well, life is blooming everywhere. A few days ago, the eggs started cracking. I remember watching eggs in the incubator when I was a kid, but I don't remember ever seeing them actually hatch! Leigha and I kept tabs on the eggs. We even got to see a beak poking out the top of the egg and that was it. It was neat! Leigha even got to hold one the other day (and then proceeded to ask for one as a pet)!





We missed taking pictures of the butterflies. As soon as they went through the metamorphosis process, they had to be released because the teachers were afraid that they wouldn't have enough food to keep them going through the weekend. It was just fun to watch though!