Birds WITH a Feather...

Do you remember this picture?

Last September Katie picked out this beautiful bird for her birthday, primarily because it had the longest, prettiest tail of all the birds in the store.




Fast forward to the first weekend of February. My sister's husband, Ed, has taken two or three business trips yearly, leaving Ashley home with their five children aged eight and under. The youngest is nine months old. Can you imagine? To top it all off, they home school.

Before Ed left for his most recent business trip, Ashley grumbled that motherhood doesn't provide "business trips," no weekend escapes from the mundaneness of stinky diapers, midnight feedings and the constant sound of "Mom. Mom. Mom." Nobody says, "Hey, I need you to fly to this faraway city and have intelligent, adult conversation with other like minded adults. Oh, and then we'll provide you with your very own quiet hotel room (read: a full, uninterrupted night's sleep)."

Before you work-outside-the-home mom's chime in and say, "I wish I could stay home all day," or anyone says, "Wait, that's the choice she made when she decided to stay home with the kids," I say stow it. Every choice has its benefits and challenges. Everyone grumbles now and then. If you're not a grumbler, you're stronger than I. Bully for you.

But I digress. SuperEd came up with a SuperSolution for their situation. He suggested that Ashley take a little "business trip" of her own while he stayed home with the kids. It became a SuperDuperSolution when Ashley invited me on her "business trip" to Winter Park, Colorado, along with my mom and dad. Carl OK'd the trip, we found excellent accommodations and enjoyed two nights in the Rockies. Ahhhh.

Look, Mom, it's Byers Peak!

So far, so good. Right? Ashley and I have wonderful, selfless husbands who are willing to sacrifice for our sanity, right?

Well, sort of. SuperEd lives near his family, who provided a couple of meals and a place to hang out with the kids while we vacationed the days away. That's not to minimize his efforts. He still spent the nights alone with baby who's still nursing and a two-year-old who awakens at odd hours.

While Carl didn't have a baby to contend with, he had Hannah. Need I say more? No family lives within a one hundred mile radius. He even took Hannah to work with him Thursday. What a guy.

I called Carl from Colorado that Thursday night. "How are things going?"

"Great. The DVD player in the truck didn't function while Hannah and I were at work, so I had to go to plan B, but Hannah was an angel. A guy at my last job gave her a big, white helium balloon."

"How's everything at home?"

"No problems." He paused, then muttered, "Here's another one."

"Another what?" I asked.

"Oh, I keep finding Pippin's feathers all over the house. I don't know what's going on."

I pictured downy white and blue feathers dotting the floor and asked, "Do you think he's sick?"

"Nah. I'm sure everything's OK." We talked a little longer, then hung up for the evening.

I spoke with Katie the next evening. "How was school today?"

"Fine." We've recently entered the realm of monosyllabism. That's my new word.

"Did anything unusual happen?" I asked, hoping to solicit a lengthier reply. I wasn't disappointed.

"Next time I see Hannah I'm going to dump water on her head."

Uh oh. "Why's that?" I asked cautiously.

"She pulled all of Pippin's tail feathers out. Next time I catch her at Pippin's cage, I'm going to dump a glass of water on her head."

"Yeah, you said that already." At least she didn't say she was going to kill her. I attempted to soothe Katie and told her we would figure something out when I returned home.

Katie's description was accurate. Hannah pulled all of Pippin's tail feathers out, not just a few downy blue and white ones.

I can only hope they'll grow back. Poor bird. For now, we keep Pippin locked in Katie's and Hailey's room during the day until we can determine how to make his cage Hannah-proof.

I haven't written here in a long time, but believe me, it isn't because life has become dull.

Tune in tomorrow for The Deeper Meaning of Tail Feathers. It's already written and scheduled to publish tomorrow morning.