"Come birdwatch"

Katie sits on her pink stool on the patio and unfolds her bird "map" as she calls it. "Come birdwatch with me Mommy," she tells me. For some reason she thinks that birdwatching is best done on her pink stool in that one spot.

We started seeing some interesting birds in our backyard, so we bought the bird "map" and a book of Texas birds. I loved the idea of looking for birds in our backyard because it's so accessible to Katie. You don't need to know how to read or write or shoot a basket to do it. And throw in the chance factor and it's fun daily thing. Plus, we actually have a backyard (nope, that novelty hasn't worn off yet).

Birdwatching is actually following Debbie's lead. She keeps a large bird book in her back sunroom. I believe it was one of Mitch's teachers who helped get Mitch into the budding ornithologist he is, but my sister did name her daughter after a bird.