MIA Francis, Toast, and my Mischievous Michael

First on the topic list,

Francis has been Missing In Action for 20 or so minutes. Why the alarm you ask? Pull up a chair my friend...

While Josh was fixing some leftovers from dinner (he gets home late), I hear him proclaim, to no one in particular, "GEMMA, YOU STUPID DOG!!! She's got a bird in her mouth!" So we both go outside to survey the damage. We finally get a hold of our mighty hunter. It's bad. Very bad. The poor birds' insides are on the outside. It's a gray bird, and I instinctively look up to make sure it isn't Francis (whose nest is right above us on the deck). Francis isn't there. My heart sinks! After Josh gets the bird from Gemma, I look more closely at the bird, 90% sure it's a turtle dove. 110% sure it's dead. It's an adult bird, how did she get it? Luck? Was it hurt? I have no idea. All I know is Francis is not in her nest, I am on the watch now. She could be gathering food. We could have scared her with all the commotion. I am so worried, her babies are bigger now, but haven't left the nest. Can they survive if their mother is indeed Gemma's latest sacrifice? Should I call someone? Who do I call? Should I let nature take it's course? I am very worried and sad about this. I really hope Francis is well and that I find her sitting in her nest happily very soon. Please keep Francis and her babies in your thoughts and prayers.

To read previous posts about Francis click here and here.

UPDATE AT 8:47pm, same day- Francis Lives, she is sitting happily on her babies;) YEAH!!!


Now on to Michael...

So I have started to give Michael bigger pieces of food, as apposed to breaking everything into little pieces for him. I am trying to teach him to take a bite out of things (instead of shoving the whole thing in his mouth at once). This is Tuesday's toast at breakfast. He thought it was fun, after I showed him what to do;)

Funny little Bubba;)


We have had a bit of a problem with Michael getting into the fridge. Culminating in him spilling things. Michael has also learned how to turn the door knobs, yes he can reach them easily- and as soon as he figures out how to unlock them, he'll be outside. So I made a trip to Babies R Us today and stocked up on some new necessities.

Behold the fridge lock. Michael SCREAMED and WAILED like a beast when he couldn't get this open this afternoon. MMMWAHAHAHAHAH!

I put one of these little beauties on the front door, door leading into the garage (which my mom couldn't open when we went walking this evening) and on each of the bathroom doors.


This wasn't really an issue, but while I was at it I figured why not lock the oven door too. Michael has opened it before, but it's been awhile. Usually he just hits the door to wiggle it enough so the oven light flashes on and off. This afternoon, however, after he couldn't get into the fridge guess where he headed straight to... you guessed it! The oven. And he couldn't open IT either.

My plan isn't to replace parental supervision (which I never even thought of until I read the "warning" on the back of these packages) but instead is to keep my child safe while we are in the midst of teaching what TO do and NOT to do.

With all his fun thwarted, Michael had to drool over the chicken baking in the oven for dinner.

And settle for opening the "under oven" pan drawer.

The End