Baby Ducks - Human and Feathered

I had an awesome weekend. Gorgeous weather. Pool finally warmed up enough to jump in. Hanging out with the “whole family” as little bit would say. She kept looking around, during everything we did, and, smiling, proclaimed “whole family!”

In addition to the fajita dinner with friends on the back porch, birthday party and church going, and errand running, there were two particularly memorable moments. First, seeing my little ones take like ducks to the water. Second, actually taking our duck (Doo-Dah) to the water where his permanent home will be.

If you missed it, we inherited a baby duck for Easter from my sister-in-law in Austin. Despite my misgivings, the kids really adored this duck. And they named him Doo-Dah. Doo-Dah Duck quickly grew though from a darling little duck into a full grown adult duck complete with less than ideal hygiene living in his little backyard home we had made for him. We never intended to keep Doo-Dah for his entire life, but rather release him into a happy comfortable environment with other ducks that regularly eat bread given out by nice neighbors. We settled on the BP duck pond. However, when the time drew near, I struggled with releasing the little fellow. It was going to be a tough adjustment. All five of us traipsed out to the pond Saturday, bringing a big bag of bread to help Doo-Dah make friends, and threw him in the pond. He was having none of it. He climbed back out and stuck close to us. We tried this a couple times. The turtles and catfish got most of the bread. While I rushed the kids back to the car parked next to the pond, Bray gave Doo-Dah one last push into the pond. He hopped out and hurriedly waddled back to our car. We waved good-bye with him standing there between the pond and the car, I’m sure wondering why on earth we were driving away. I have to tell you, despite the inconvenience of that duck, I was pretty darn sad. I’m still a little sad. I’m hoping he loves his new home and is safe. The baby this morning looked at me and said, “I miss Doo-Dah.” Me too little guy, me too. (Here’s Doo-Dah taking his last cruise in our swimming pool last week🙂

The happiest time of the weekend was swimming with the kiddos in our pool. They’ve always enjoyed swimming, but because there’s only two of us to three of them, the past two summers they spent most of their pool time in a float ring. They hate being constrained. While I wasn’t nuts about using arm floats (I’ve heard it gives them a false sense of being able to float in the water), I am SOLD on them now. We start swimming lessons in a couple of weeks and giving the kids freedom to kick and paddle and float in the water beforehand will help immensely. Bray and I had a blast finally “swimming” with them. The little lady was the most fearless of the three (no surprise there). She jumped with wild abandon into our arms and then begged, “again, again.” When she wasn’t jumping, she said, “me do it by myself mommy.” I was not allowed to touch her while she “swam.” I just stood incredibly close! The baby also loved the water and happily let daddy dunk him as he learned to go underwater. The eldest, true to form, was the most cautious. Saturday he would not leave our side and kept his legs firmly wrapped around my torso. By Sunday, he had warmed up to the idea of swimming and jumped in and floated by himself by the end of the hour alongside brother and sister. What a relaxing way to spend the afternoon! We even ate dinners Friday and Saturday night outside. Amazingly, the kitchen stays clean when the mess stays outside (on a patio which can easily be hosed off).