Dr. Doolittle

Meet Henry.
Henry is a sweet little bird I found hopping around our yard this morning. He was so cute I ran in to get Olivia, who was engrossed in cartoons, to come see him with me. Olivia and Henry chatted for quite some time. According to Olivia, he told her that he liked her red, star shoes.

Henry was so fun I realized I needed to call the other kids over to meet him. They were further back in the yard playing kickball with some neighborhood friends. Everyone loved Henry on sight. After awhile Henry stopped chirping and closed his eyes and seemed quite nervous (I recognized the signs because that is the same thing my toddlers always do whenever someone outside the family attempts to talk to them). So, I told the kids they should back away and let Henry get back to his flying practice (which is what he'd been doing). Olivia and I returned to the house.

About two minutes later Benjamin came running inside yelling, "Mom! Thomas is holding the bird on a stick!" Olivia and I ran back out to see but the bird had already hopped off. All of the kids were now holding out sticks trying to coax him to hop on their stick. He refused. Until Thomas held out a stick again at which point he hopped over all the other sticks to jump onto Thomas' stick. This went on for about five minutes.

Then Thomas put his stick down and stepped back and the other kids tried again to very gently coax him onto their sticks. He refused and instead flew over to Thomas and landed on his hand. Then proceeded to climb up his arm and onto his shoulder and back. Thomas was shocked and shaking with laughter. I was laughing so hard I could barely snap pictures (also my camera was full so I kept having to delete pictures before I could take anymore).

Once he was on Thomas he stayed for quite awhile climbing up and down his arm while all the other kids watched jealously. Until Thomas yelled, "WHAT THE CRAP HE POOPED ON ME!" And practically threw Henry to the ground so that he couldrun in the house and wash the poop off.

When he came back out the kids were all very gently trying to get Henry to let them pet him. This time he flew away from the kids (about four feet) to cling to Thomas' shirt. Thomas was startled (see picture).

Henry stayed for quite awhile until Thomas put him to the ground so that he could sit next to him (he was afraid of being pooped upon again). They stayed with Henry for quite awhile-- eventually everyone wandered away (to play videogames) except Thomas, Claire, and Claire's friend. Thomas said, "I guess I'm a mother...do I have to stay with him all day?"

I don't know what it is with that boy--animals always come to him. When he was about four he would go out on our lawn and put his finger out and butterflies would land on it and let him put them in his bug cage. When he opened the door to the cage he would stick his finger in and they would land on it again and let him take them out and then put them back in again! They never flew away! Same thing with grasshoppers--he would cup his hand and grasshoppers would jump right into it and hang out. He has caught several animals in this same manner (everything from mammals to birds to amphibians).