a tale of two birdies

Ella came dashing into kitchen today, "Daddy, two of the eggs hatched! There's little red birdies in the nest!"

We've been anxiously awaiting the crackling birth of the three little birds for over a week! The mommy bird gave us front row seats by conveniently nesting their little home under our deck. For the past week or so, Ella and Britten have have made frequent visits to peer through the cracks of our deck floor boards, curious to see if the little blue eggs had hatched.

The girls were hesitant about going out to the deck because the Mommy bird would perch herself on our railing and scold them (or "scream at them," as Ella and Britten put it) for coming too close to her babies.
Could you really blame her, though? I'd be nervous, too, if I was her!

Every time the girls would make there way back to the house, I'd ask...

"Did they hatch yet?" And for the past week, I've been getting same response. "No, they haven't. Mommy, when will they hatch? Are the going to hatch soon?" It's hard to give an answer to that, because soon to a 2 and 4 year old translates to 5 minutes from when they asked.

But today, when Ella flew into the house from the deck, we knew something had changed from earlier this morning, when she made her first rounds to check on the babies and they still hadn't hadn't hatched. This time, the birds HAD HATCHED...Or more precisely, were hatching at. that. very. moment! My husband captured this...

...by taking a picture through the 1/2 inch gap in our floorboards. Unbelievable. As you can imagine, the girls were thrilled to be first-hand witnesses to the miraculous birth of God's mini-creations! Needless to say, Mommy bird wasn't too thrilled we were there, but as far as I'm concerned, she can bug "bird" off and go eat some worms.