Nature Boy

Part of the reason we moved out here to the island was so that our little boy (aka "Wild Man") could grow up in a Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn environment. I put up bird feeders outside his window so he could watch the cute birdies close up and learn to appreciate nature. He appreciates Mother Nature, all right and I think She is plotting to get me back for that.

Unless it's bitter cold, snowing or raining, I try to take Logan with me when I feed the birds, squirrels, geese and ducks. At first, he could have cared less but he was only a few weeks old at the time. I knew in time he'd grow to enjoy it and I was right. Now I'm in trouble if I go feed them without him, even though right now it's a bit of a pain in the neck. Take today, for instance. I got home from work and there were a bunch of geese and ducks out back, probably making a "pit stop" on the way South. So I put Logan in the jogging stroller and headed down to the river. I was about halfway down the hill when I realized that I was going down a steep-ish hill with 10 pounds of corn in one hand and the handle to the jogging stroller in the other. One false move on my part and the stroller would go flying towards the geese, ducks and the Mighty Mississippi with my widdow Boo Boo Baby inside. (You know, in 15 years he'll die of embarassment reading this article.) Luckily for all we got to the bottom safe and sound, as usual.

The critters are fairly used to seeing me and don't fly off. I wanted them to get used to Logan, so I pushed the stroller a little closer to them than usual. Not one of my more brilliant ideas. No, this isn't one of those "when Nature attacks" stories; the geese didn't storm the stroller. See, Logan is 15 months old and if you've ever been around a kid that age, you know that volume control isn't a standard feature. He saw the geese and ducks waddle over and squealed with delight. Make that SQUEALED with delight. The poor birds didn't know what was going on and they weren't sticking around to find out. They hightailed it to the middle of the river and out of earshot. Lucky birds. They can fly off. Mama is stuck with a boy who can produce decibels that would deafen people at a Kiss concert.

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