Good Mama Duck, Bad Mama Duck

We had a nice, relaxing weekend. The fun part of the weekend was Saturday morning when I was outside shaking my rugs (I know - imagine that - I was cleaning) I saw a mama duck with about 11 ducklings huddled around her right next to the bushes under Emma's bedroom window. I must have scared the mama duck because she immediately led all of her little ducklings to the pond for their inaugural swim. I thought to myself that the ducklings had to be just born because they were all so small. Then I remembered once seeing a mama duck crawling into those bushes, so I looked, and sure enough, way into the bushes was a big nest with about 11 broken eggs. So, in fact, we had two nesting mama ducks in our bushes this year. The one was a bad, impatient mama who only waited for one baby to hatch and left its nest. The other was a good, caring mama duck who patiently waited for all of its babies to hatch and then led them to the water. The good mama duck must have learned some lessons from me!! Haha! We just love all of the free entertainment that our backyard provides! (We also saw 4 golfers this afternoon dressed just like Payne Stewart with the knickers and bright shirts with matching bright argyle socks and hat. They looked so cute - but I didn't have my camera nearby to capture the moment.)

For those of you wondering about Emma she is doing great. She still isn't walking but is getting closer and closer each week. She is walking with her little car walker (see the video below.) She is also doing this crazy crab walk in the grass on her feet and hands. She absolutely LOVES to be outside. Whenever we open the back door she is like a felon escaping from Alcatraz. She tries to crawl outside as fast as she can so that we don't leave her inside. It is hilarious. She also loves pineapple. While Jay and I were eating dinner tonight I put a bunch of tiny cut up pineapple on her tray to keep her occupied. They were cut tiny enough, but the problem was that she shoved ALL of them into her mouth at once. She started choking and I thought I was going to have to do the Heimlich maneuver on her. It scared me half to death. She finally spit it up - thank goodness we are all born with the gag reflex. I learned that I have to closely monitor how much she shoves into her mouth at once. She also had spaghetti o's for the first time today. She loved them, of course. So far the only thing she spits out is hot dog and carrots. Hope everyone has a great week.

My newest masterpiece from "Picnik"

Good mama duck with her babies on their inaugural swim

Emma walking