Bird verdict and homecoming

For those of you on the edge of your seats about the birds on our porch fan, I think I have a verdict. My mom and I reached the same conclusion....that they're swallows. I think these are Cliff Swallows, but people call them barn swallows too (people who are wrong). According to my mother, if they find a place they like, they are very persistent about building mud nests and it makes a huge mess. I'm pretty sure this was a family, and they were 'parking' the fledgling up on the ceiling fan while they caught bugs. Any time he flew off, they'd fuss at him and make him go back to the fan. I've seen these types of birds out here all the time, zooming around catching bugs, but I've always thought they were Martins. And prior to that I thought they were bats. This is the first time I've ever seen any of them stop and perch anywhere, which is why I think it's a family. Anyhoo, to foil their nesting attempts, I'm keeping the fan turned on. They weren't too happy about that.

Blah, blah, blah, what about Parker........Parker has had a nice day. Bob has been out of town all week for work, and she's been missing him. On the phone they were talking:

Parker: "I miss you"

Bob: "I miss you too."

Parker: "I miss you....one hundred!"

This week we've been working on table manners, and not making a BLECH face when you get your plate and see your dinner, and not playing with toys or getting up and down out of your chair or singing or dancing or crying, etc etc. I made a chart and tonight she got all her stamps...although it was easy since it was pizza night.

bird id

What could these be? Click on the picture and it will enlarge. They made a big rucus flying up there, all snipping at each other (there are 3). My guess is lazy Martins taking a break. They look like they had a little blueish/purple on their backs.

some quick pics

I've been a blog slacker lately. I don't really have an excuse....except that we're busy as usual. Here's Parker with her Gigi and Papa - acting goosey of course. And a picture of her riding her big plastic tricycle. She has very strange posture in this picture for some reason. She was really pleased with the outfit she put together....tank top and jeans and matching headband. She likes to wear the headbands at the front of her head like that......which doesn't really do any good to hold her hair back, but I guess it is more comfortable that way.