It's a Bird

When Sara was four she loved birds. One of her greatest desires was to catch one. To this end, Sara and her friend Kayla spent an afternoon fastening green plastic strawberry containers to the cherry tree. Then they padded the bottoms of the containers to make them warm and comfortable for any bird that claimed a pre-fab nest.

The nest project kept them entertained for hours, so I encouraged them and gladly gave them pieces of stuffing and fabric in exchange for the peace and quiet.

A week or two passed and no birds moved in. All of the containers fell out of the tree except one. Sara faithfully checked on this one, waiting for her bird.  Then one day, when I came home from work, Sara flew out of the door to meet me.

"A bird moved in! A bird moved in!" She yelled, jumping up and down.

She grabbed my hand and I excitedly followed her to the back yard. To think I had doubted! Then she showed me a rather large (chicken size) blue egg sitting in the nest. My excitement faded.

"Oh Sara," I said, "I'm sorry, that looks like a chicken egg. Someone is playing a joke on you."

"No Mom!" She protested, "Kari told me that she saw a bird in my nest and when I came out I found this."

"Did you see the bird?" I asked

"No", she said, getting a worried look on her face. "I better take it in the house and make sure it stays warm, or it won't hatch."

While Sara gathered up the egg, I went in search of her sister, Kari. Sara would not believe that the egg was a joke. Even when Kari confessed to her she refused to believe it. She wrapped the egg in fabric scraps (Kari assured me that it was hard-boiled), and kept it in a dresser drawer until it came up missing.

Kari told her the bird hatched and flew away. Sara cried.

Incidentally, Sara did catch a bird a couple years later...but that is a different story.