Birdy

Zane has a number of faces which can be useful for reading his state of mind, instead of waiting for him to start crying. The photo shows what Faith calls “Bird Mouth” and it pretty much means: “I’d like to request a meal if you aren’t too busy.” Which gives us approximately 2,000 milliseconds to produce food or it transforms into the “I live with bad people and am starving” look that’s a precursor to warm up vocalizations and then full-bore crying.

There’s also: “Wait until you clean THIS diaper”, “I’m perfectly happy at this second in time”, “Oooo, light/color!”, and “Nobody is touching me and I shall wither.” He also has the cutest little pursed “o” lip look, which seems to be a combination of surprise, happiness, and wonder. Maybe it’s a Halstead thing, little Cooper has a version. Different, but still inexplicable.

Speaking of Bird Mouths (subtle segue here so as not to scare my brother off), we have a new visitor at the house. This hawk has been hanging out by the pond for the last week. I can usually tell it’s there by the raucous fuss the Robins make, yet I haven’t managed to figure out what it is up to. It could be Zane’s familiar, hanging out to keep him safe. Or it could be hanging out to pick off a toad, since they’ve started mating this week. Or, perhaps it’s waiting for Tink to escape from her house arrest?

p.s. Zane’s tectonic plate has almost completely subsided … goodbye Klingon boy!
p.p.s. although it looks like he might be working on the Neil Young sideburn thing