Another Moment for the Lass

Today is a day for which the lass has been waiting for 2 years now. She reminded me about it when the school year began. She reminded me about it a couple of weeks ago when the lessons had turned to the subject at hand. Today, it finally came to fruition.

What could it possibly be? Why today, I brought our parrots in for a show-and-tell type presentation. I did the same thing 2 years ago with the boy’s kindergarten class, thus beginning her long, slow march towards her own moment in the Sun.

From a rational standpoint, I have a hard time understanding it. Sure, it’s exciting to have a parent come in to school so a child can show them off. Suddenly, the parent is on the child’s turf so there’s a subtle power shift. Even so, 2 years she’s been looking forward to it.

For what it’s worth, the event went fine. The parrots were agreeable little guests in the room and all the kids were very interested in them. I talked about some of the boring stats like their size and how long they live. All of them got a chance to touch the birds. That’s the hardest part, because the parrots aren’t used to little hands reaching for them. They (the parrots) take a rather dim view of the little hands, actually. I counter act things by holding the kid’s hand and helping them to touch the birds beak and their feathers. They still get a kick out of it, even though they aren’t like a dog or cat when it comes to holding them.

One of the kids got a bonus when I set one of the parrots on his arm. The bird decided he’d finally had enough and flew off, leaving one of his flight feather behind. The kids who were there (most were putting on coats and hats and getting ready to leave) thought it was pretty cool how the bird had flown. I handed the flight feather to the boy the bird had flown away from. He held it like it was a priceless treasure.

So, in the end, no one was bitten, one boy got a feather, and the lass got to strut her stuff in front of her friends. The most memorable moment for me?

When I first came into the room, the kids were having snack and the lass was holding court. She said something to the effect “My Dad brought in my birds…” Funny, for them being “her” birds, I don’t recall her ever cleaning the cage.