The Baby Birds are Gone

Dear Ella,

The nest is empty. I saw it this morning when I left the house to run. We have been watching the mother bird sit on her two eggs for several days now. She wasn't a smart bird, but what she lacked in intelligence, she had in beauty. She was grey with a large orange beak and an orange belly; and she thought our small tree next to the laundry room door that we come in and out of a thousand times a day was a good place to lay her eggs. The nest was perfectly eye level for you and Caroline and you both often monitored her nesting progress through the window in our side door. Some creature in the night clearly got her eggs. They were busted open on the ground this morning and I knew we would soon have drama in our house. I sent your father down to get rid of the bloody evidence, but figured we needed to leave the nest in its place for you girls to see.

This morning while running, my friend Stephanie advised that I should just ask you what you thought happened to the birds, rather than going into the details of what really happened. This way we could consider the possibility that perhaps they hatched in the night and flew away happily protected under the wing of their mother. I temporarily forgot who I was dealing with, and thought this was a good idea and that it might even work. While putting my make-up on this morning, it became necessary for me to frantically carry Matty downstairs and launch him out the back door before he threw up...a lovely thing to do in the morning while half dressed and the maintenance crew on the course mowing the lawn. I sent you down several minutes later to let him back inside and realized very soon into this what was about to happen. You were going to go to that side door and see the empty nest. While I was quickly making my way to the stairs to quiet the scream so that you would not awaken the rest of the house, the screaming began. It was really more like a loud moan than a scream. "The cat next door got the eggs!"...well, so much for sweetly asking you what you thought had happened. I met you halfway on the stairs and tried to convince you that the birds had probably hatched and flown away in the night, but you would not hear it. In fact, you were kind of looking at me like I was an idiot. A little surprised even, like, "wow, she is dumber than I thought".

The rest of the day, you told everyone about the bird and her eggs. You explained my theory and then you explained what you thought really happened, you even supported your theory with evidence. This is what I love about you Ella. You are real, intense, and you have a big and tender heart. I know you so well! What you see is what you get with you ; a lot of good, a tiny bit of naughty, and a lot of pretty. You truly did care about those little eggs and you wanted the best for them. Though not the end of the world I know, I did think about it all day and feel bad for you. You just do not handle injustice well, it doesn't roll off you easily. I love that about you too! You're such an awesome kid Ella. I love you!

Mom