after a dinner out with the family, georgia, nana day and i left in one car and andrew and eric left in the other to meet at home. eric had mentioned the need of new running socks so, i sent him to a running store and expected to see him shortly after we arrived home. an hour passed and still no sign of the boys so i reached for the phone (it was close to bed time) and heard the garage door open. my sweet little andrew came in carrying a small box with holes along the sides. the thought of are you kidding me, what has eric done! immediately crossed my mind and i walked into the kitchen where andrew gingerly set the box down and gently opened the handles to show me the contents within. inside was a very small and very scared yellow bird. a canary, eric had bought andrew a canary! with my mind accepting this small pet, my thoughts wandered to the other small pets i have had. when i was 12 years old, my mom took me to this amazing pet store, filled with just birds! i remember there were birds in cages all along the walls, hanging from the ceiling and stacked in the middle of the small space. i studied all the birds and chose a small yellow canary for his song the store owner promised me. he became known as sunny and seriously brightened my world for quite some time. unfortunately i had to say goodbye to my little bird when we moved countries and i always had missed him. shortly after eric and i were married, i had told him about this story. after totally missing the boat on our first valentine's day as a married couple (as in forgot), he came into our small dingy student apartment holding a small box with holes on the side. this little friend came to be known as columbus and traveled all over the united states with us! he was with us for 7 years and died new years eve of 2006. we've missed our little bird, and andrew has asked for over a year now for another canary. both andrew and georgia have been completely taken by this new little addition to our family, andrew checks the water hourly and georgia just sits and watches the bird and if you move her or the bird, watch out! this bird is a singer and has taken no time at all to accept his new surroundings. he even won nana day's heart as he sang and sang all day long. and no, a canary's song is not too loud, not too high pitched and squawky, it is a beautiful song that repeats itself and sometimes picks up on the sounds the bird is surrounded by. i realized today how much i missed little columbus and how happy i am that my husband gave in to my son's pleadings and brought this little guy home. no, we haven't named him yet, we are waiting to get to know this little friend better to name him. but, we are open to suggestions, so if you have an idea, please leave a comment!
