Meet Zebra

McCabe, moments after saving Zebra

 Last night we celebrated me bending my leg to 83 degrees in physical therapy by making a quick trip to the park down the road to get rid of some pre-bedtime wiggles. The boys were pleased as punch to race around the field while playing soccer with James and I had great time observing! After a while, Coobie lost interest in the sport and spotted tons of adult robins pecking around the lawn in search of dinner. Now, Coobie is not as into animals as my other men, but right away he decided that he really REALLY wanted to catch a little robin baby. Even though there were no baby birds to be seen, for the next fifteen minutes he sprinted around the lawn trying to catch a bird. Sadly, every time he tried to make a friend, he came back in tears because they would all fly away before giving him a chance. We tried to tell him that he was just so big and strong that they were scared, but it wasn't really doing the trick. And we knew that reasoning with him about the low probability of finding a baby bird in the middle of the soccer field wasn't really going to help much either. He wanted a baby robin to love and nothing else was going to satisfy. For our little three-year-old, life seemed pretty bleak.

That is, it seemed to be until I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye. To my utter amazement, there in the middle of the field, away from any tree or the cluster of robins, was a little downy baby bird hopping along! "Coobie! A baby robin!!!" Quick as a cat, McCabe rushed over and lovingly scooped up the lost bird and claimed him as his very own! Talk about a tender mercy! It had been a really windy day and all we could think was that it got blown out of his nest somewhere. I have no doubt that Heavenly Father was aware that there was a little bird in need and that he knew the right little man to take care of him!

Coobie took his roll as bird protector very seriously

 Since he really isn't ready to be on his own yet, we took him home with us to be our friend for the next week or two. Boy are we pleased! Since he is Coobie's bird, he got to name him. His first thought was Moon (????), then Fly-guy ("Because he will fly when he is a poppy"), but then genius struck and he decided on Zebra. Go figure. So Zebra it is!

 Luckily we had some zebra scraps in my hoards of fabric so he is able to snuggle in style.

We all love Zebra!...even if the other boys think the name choice was lame.  ("Moon sounds a lot better.")

Charpy is especially tender to creatures and he is making no exceptions for Zebra. 

*****Psst! Don't tell my doctor (or his wench nurse) but I drove around town today! It has now been nearly three months and my physical therapist just gave me the orders to start doing squats- so why not drive?! I called my Dr's office to make sure that it wasn't too bad of an idea and my crotchety nurse asked me if I could do a straight-leg raise. (I had to ask her to repeat her question several times because I thought she was asking me if I could do a straight leg race.) Even though I answered in the affirmative, she then went into a long lecture about how "driving is a privilege and not a right....blah blah blah..." I meant to say that I was aware of that fact and that was why a 33-year-old woman was calling to get permission, but I was too busy wondering why in the world being able to do the can-can had anything to do with pressing and depressing two pedals! She told me that she would think about it, talk it over with my doctor and physical therapist, and then call me back with the verdict. She eventually did but I didn't answer....I was too busy driving. And we all know that it is just plain irresponsible to talk on the phone while driving! Egads!