EGGS

We’ve had a lot of eggs in the Toohig household lately. Last weekend, we tried out an early treat from HG’s Easter basket, a Magic Chicken Egg. You submerge it in water, and within 2-3 days, it cracks and ‘hatches’ a little plastic chick. Sounded fun in theory, but after the first thirty minutes of incessant “Mommy, has it hatched?!” questions, I was being to think about how I could speed up this process. She eventually moved on to something else that first morning though, and then she enjoyed checking on it throughout the weekend.

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And then this weekend, we dyed our Easter eggs. {Note to self- I must learn some way to put aside my OCD tendencies so that I can chill out during this process.} Despite my concerns of permanently staining her fingertips or spilling the dye all over the kitchen, I believe HG was oblivious and had a blast, which was the whole point!

We also have been blessed with another nest this spring. This year we were able to watch a nest of killdeer eggs. These birds build their nests on the ground and sit on them for almost a month. There were four eggs that are brown, black, and gray speckled to really camouflage them. If you got too close, the mama or daddy bird would run away from the nest, shrieking like crazy and batting his wings around, trying desperately to distract you away from the nest. We watched the nest eagerly for several weeks, and one day while we were at work, my dad stopped by and noticed some activity in the yard- BABY BIRDS HAD HATCHED! He was able to capture it on video and then called Grandma, who quickly threw HG in the car and brought her over to see them. Thank goodness for their quick action because they were gone by the time we got home from work. We’ve seen several killdeer still around the yard since then, but we can’t tell the babies from the parents anymore. We are so blessed to live in “the country” and  experience this new life first hand each spring!