Babies

Spring is baby season. The other day as I rounded the corner on a walk, I came right on to a mama deer and her brand new baby. She alerted to me, but the baby was so focused on nursing it did not even know I was there, and they stayed put, so I got a good look. The fawn was covered in newborn spots, had impossibly spindly legs and tiny hooves, and enormous ears. I backed slowly away and cut across in another direction, feeling fortunate to have seen them. There are baby red squirrels darting across the driveway, and turkey hens herding gangly chicks through the fields. The barn swallows are diving at our heads whenever we go near the barns, in their seasonal frenzy of familial protection.

We have four baby chicks in the basement. They looked like this when they were five days old. They are now three and a half weeks old, and look almost like tiny chickens; they are mostly feathered out, but still have downy heads. The rate of growth on chicks is astounding. They are visibly larger at the end of the day than they were in the morning. They got most of their feathers over the course of three days. When they are about six weeks old they will move out of the basement, and will go into a pen in the coop. These are Americaunas, which will lay eggs with sky blue shells when they get bigger.

The goats are doing very well. They visited Winter's daycare a couple of weeks ago and got their photos in the local newspaper. They loved the visit, and the human kids loved the goats.

Winter visited the Montshire museum recently. The Montshire is a medium-sized science and nature museum. Chuck and I used to teach science classes to kids there, and probably will again, but I had not been there for a while. I knew there was a water park area, but I expected that Winter would just want to maybe paddle her feet in the water. I did not even pack a towel or change of clothes, not figuring I would need them. Winter took one look at the water area, and I knew immediately. She wanted that water. I turned around and headed back up to the gift shop to purchase the required swim diaper. I coated her in a gallon of sunscreen, and turned her loose. She played, and played, and played. And played. She played in the water for well over an hour, and would have stayed for much longer, but I knew she was so wet that a second coating of sunscreen was futile. She passed out in the car on the way home and slept the sleep of the happy summer child.

She also had ice cream for the first time recently. I think she has decided it is going to be a great summer.