Peep Peep

I spent all morning cleaning the boys' room. I mean, I really cleaned it! I suited up in hazmat gear and emptied out drawers, moved furniture, scrubbed walls, threw out food wrappers, and vacuumed up all the ants the food wrappers had attracted. I stripped the boys' beds, found 4 stray sippy cups in them, then washed all their bedding. I waded through mountains of smelly clothes, cleaned out the dresser drawers, and threw out tons of stuff. Finally, I brought in a pressure washer to hose the place down.

While I did this, Clay and Brooklyn played in the sand box. I could see them out the window and I checked on them several times. Until one time, I looked up and they weren't there. I had gotten a phone call and didn't realize how long I'd been on the phone until I checked on the kids and found them a few feet away at my neighbor's house. They had taken a small ladder and climbed up to see the bird's nest nestled in the crook where the gutter meets the downspout.

When I walked out, Clay was on the ladder looking in the nest. On the ground were 4 broken Robin's eggs. One of the eggs was broken in a small, plastic, play dish. I yelled at talked to them about staying in our yard and leaving daddy's ladder alone, and most importantly, not disturbing the nest and breaking the eggs. Clay told me, "I know we shouldn't have touched the eggs. We just wanted them to get bigger and then they broke." He looked genuinely sad. "But we're going to fix it," he quickly added. Then he asked Brooklyn to hand him the eggs. I looked at Brooklyn's hands and saw they contained 3 eggs from my fridge. Not only that, but she also held the 2 marshmallow peeps I'd found while cleaning the boys' room. (Yes, they were harder than granite. I know - ew)

If I hadn't interrupted them, Clay was going to put the 3 eggs from our refrigerator and the 2 "birds" (marshmallow Peeps) in the nest to make up for the eggs they broke. Oh yeah, that'll fix it. I'm sure the poor confused robin will never notice that her small, blue eggs have been replaced with chicken eggs and marshmallow Peeps. I can just see the "What the heck???" look on her little bird face now. She'd do a little birdy double-take and shake her head all confused, thinking she'd flown to the wrong nest.

Ugh, I'm hoping our discussion will sink in and he'll understand what he did wrong and why he needs to respect nature and leave creatures alone.

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

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I'll be at The Ice House Mall in Barrington, IL tomorrow (Thursday) from 5-7 for a book signing. There will be wine, swag bags for guests, a raffle for a mall gift certificate, and the restaurant is offering 50% off an entree when you present a signed copy of my book. Come join us for some pre-Mother's Day fun!