Proximate Mom
In law there is this concept of "proximate cause" where if you try to sue for damages the action in question that supposedly caused your damages has to have been proximate--the direct cause.
Proximate cause has nothing to do with this story except that I keep thinking "proximate mom" pretty frequently. Whenever Sophia is playing on the ground, like a baby who raises her arms in expectation that Mom will pick her up, Sophia, half preoccupied with a bead or button, raises her foot. It's like an automatic response to some Mom radar. "Mom's within five feet. She's going to pick me up." *raises foot still playing with her toy* And if I go outside of Soph's Mom Radar, she puts her foot back down. And if come back within that zone, her foot goes back up. Totally cracks me up.
Sophia's other method of "step up" is more of a jump. She doesn't really step onto my hand--ever--she leaps, lands, bounces, and then leaps onto my shoulder, like my hand was a stepping stone in a stream, and my shoulder, naturally, is the destination. Then she leans in for the inevitable kiss, and places her beak against my cheek for head scratches and more kisses.
Petey's method of stepping up is far more genteel and proper. He walks up, pauses, and then with all the class of a sophisticated gentleman, steps with one foot, then the other. He straightens up like a commanding officer, ruffles his feathers around his beak, and watches me with an air of expectation.
His expectation is correct. I feel like a ferry, as I transport this feathered gentleman to the nearest patio chair, where he steps off full of grace and dignity...
...And then jumps onto the ground to chase all the cats away. With the coast clear, he marches to the garden to continue digging his nest, where someday he will make Sophia his bride and have many little babies.
Sophia has not consented to this plan, and indeed does not even know this whole concept of marriage (or babies) exists.
Proximate cause has nothing to do with this story except that I keep thinking "proximate mom" pretty frequently. Whenever Sophia is playing on the ground, like a baby who raises her arms in expectation that Mom will pick her up, Sophia, half preoccupied with a bead or button, raises her foot. It's like an automatic response to some Mom radar. "Mom's within five feet. She's going to pick me up." *raises foot still playing with her toy* And if I go outside of Soph's Mom Radar, she puts her foot back down. And if come back within that zone, her foot goes back up. Totally cracks me up.
Sophia's other method of "step up" is more of a jump. She doesn't really step onto my hand--ever--she leaps, lands, bounces, and then leaps onto my shoulder, like my hand was a stepping stone in a stream, and my shoulder, naturally, is the destination. Then she leans in for the inevitable kiss, and places her beak against my cheek for head scratches and more kisses.
Petey's method of stepping up is far more genteel and proper. He walks up, pauses, and then with all the class of a sophisticated gentleman, steps with one foot, then the other. He straightens up like a commanding officer, ruffles his feathers around his beak, and watches me with an air of expectation.
His expectation is correct. I feel like a ferry, as I transport this feathered gentleman to the nearest patio chair, where he steps off full of grace and dignity...
...And then jumps onto the ground to chase all the cats away. With the coast clear, he marches to the garden to continue digging his nest, where someday he will make Sophia his bride and have many little babies.
Sophia has not consented to this plan, and indeed does not even know this whole concept of marriage (or babies) exists.