Robin eggs.

I just noticed a nest in the tree closest to our balcony railing--and in that nest are 4 beautiful blue robin eggs. (You can look RIGHT into the nest from our balcony--pretty cool.) I don't know how long the eggs have been there, but incubation is 12 - 14 days. I wonder if they'll hatch while I'm still here.

Trivia fact number one: robins usually lay four eggs at a time--an egg a day.

Trivia fact number two: baby robins will stay in the nest for 9-16 days.

Trvia fact number three: only 40% of "clutches"--which is like a "litter" of puppies, only for robins--actually survive to leave the nest. Guess I shouldn't get too attached to them then.

I'll continue to update you for as long as I'm around. Remember: today is just the first day that I NOTICED the eggs. They may have been there for a while; they could hatch tomorrow or two weeks from now.

I'm sure I can turn this into an educational activity for "my kids" somehow. I think I'll get a disposable camera and start taking daily pictures, from now until (hopefully) the babies are full grown and leave the nest. Then I can show the pictures to the kids and we can put together a "baby book" for the birds, writing a little story to go with the pictures. They're really too young to be able to do anything much more advanced. Two of the three kids don't even have a concept of time yet, so my telling them that the "eggs will hatch in another week" or "the baby birds will leave the next in two more weeks" won't mean anything to them. (Noah, the 4 year old, once said, "Supernanny, remember when we went out for ice cream last year?"--referring to something we had done the week before.)