Mother Goose and Other Birds

Oh, the healing powers of Mother Goose! Last night as things were winding down, we had a show on PBS. It was about an ancient Peruvian civilization I had never learned of, complete with pyramids and other fascinating artifacts. Archaeologists are currently studying this civilization and exploring why it vanished.

Unfortunately, this civilization practiced human sacrifice. We discovered this while learning how archaeologists are deciphering pictographs on pottery. A reenacting of a throat cutting scene, complete with detailed description of how the jugular was fashioned into a funnel so the blood could pour into a sacred vessel, just about ruined any chance of sleep for me and Buddy.

Fortunately, we hurried to turn off the TV and started reciting Mother Goose. This lead to his retrieving a Mother Goose from Little Missy's room, sitting on the floor in the hallway and reading them out loud to the three of us still awake in the house.

My girl was appalled at the variations. "It's not 'all the babies in bed, for it's now 10 o'clock?' but "all the children in bed for it's now 8 o'clock'!" I don't know how long it's been since she read Mother Goose, but she provided different versions for many of those we read. Some of them I hadn't remembered at all. She has a strange mind.

But Mother Goose did work. We are a squeamish bunch. Actually, I'm more squeamish than anyone else, I think. Can't watch violence, blood or mayhem on the screen. Don't tolerate suspense well. I've been known to watch the scary bits through a reflection in a window and to bury my head in a pillow until someone tells me it's over. I have to really trust the person to watch a movie with them.

Mother Goose made me think of other birds and this is the newest addition to our family. She's a six year old peach faced lovebird, abandoned by a previous owner and passed on to us. She's a great companion, but is taking her time warming up to us. We got her a new and much larger cage, encourage her to fly around when we are home and Mark even clipped a really long toenail she had.

We named her Aphrodite because she didn't come with a name. Because she was ditched by her previous owner for being mean to his other birds (lovebirds can be pretty aggressive), we'll not get her a mate. All of the books we've read say that it's not necessary to get a mate and introducing a mate later in life is difficult. We are just used to seeing images of lovebirds in pairs, preening each other adorably.

Aphrodite will land on an outstretched finger, step up onto our fingers and hang out on our shoulders when she feels like it. Getting her back into her cage before she's ready has been a challenge for us, but we'll get there with practice. And so far we haven't been able to find the fresh fruit or veggie she will eat.