Congratulations, it's a bird!!

Child psychology experts seem to agree that one should tell one's two year old that another little one is on the way fairly early on, usually about the time the pregnancy is obvious. Babycenter.com advises not waiting too long after breaking the good news to the world to break the great news to the soon-to-be older siblings. Certainly, the boys, as twins, have a general concept about brotherhood and siblings and sharing parents and all of that, and they're bound to hear about the blog sooner or later, so today seemed like a good day to introduce them to the egg.

The whole thing happened sort of spur of the moment. For those of you paying attention, and with semi-decent short term memory, you'll recall that the nest discovery occurred during an attempt to fix an ill-fitting A/C slip cover. And my wife, my understanding, forgiving, tolerant wife, promised to not call the super in to fix it until the tiny has hatched and flown away to live its life. What this all means is that the A/C slip cover remains broken and falls open from time to time. I find it gives the apartment a more "open" feel, but really it just lets in the fumes from 49th St. And it offers a fantastic opportunity to bird watch.

So there we all were, me, my wife, my boys, Uncle Buubie and my mother-in-law, when the A/C slip cover plopped open. And then there we were, me, my wife, my boys, Uncle Buubie, my mother-in-law, the bird and the nest. As a parent, you just roll with it.

US: "Hey, guys, do you see that? What is that?"

THEM #1: "Birrrd."

THEM #2: "Tweet tweet tweet."

US: "It's fun to have a bird around. We want the bird to stay here. The bird needs us to be quiet."

THEM #1: "Shhh." Finger to lips in universal sign of "please be quiet".

THEM #2: "Night night."

US: "The bird is sitting on an egg. Just like in Horton."

THEM #1: "Birrrd."

THEM #2: "Elephant."

Then I introduced the wife to the egg and the bird, and the mother-in-law, who seemed more excited than expected to be that close to a pigeon, and then Uncle Buubie.

I have caught them all, at least once since, checking on the egg.