Did You See the Ostrich in Our Front Yard?
Shane barreled down the stairs yelling, “Mom! Mom!”
“Shane!” I said back. “Shane!”
“Did you see the ostrich in our front yard?”
I must have misheard him.
“An ostrich?”
He was racing to the front window, me close behind. “Well, it might not be an ostrich,” he said. “But look!”
He pointed at the big window. I saw nothing, and certainly no ostrich.
“You are just pointing at the window,” I said. “Where exactly is it?”
“Right there!” he said, pointing aimlessly again. Eventually I saw something move, something black, just across the driveway from our front yard.
“it’s a turkey!” I exclaimed. I had only seen wild turkeys once before – a few miles from where we now live – so I knew they existed. But I had certainly never seen one in our yard before.
Shane is the best photographer in our family, so I sent him out in search of a picture. If nothing else, he was able to get a closer view of the bird. And while he didn’t get a picture, he did get to see it up close – and we both got to watch it fly away.
Later I told Dylan about the incident.
Dylan said, “He does know that ostriches are native to the African plains, right?”
I had to think about this. Sometimes Shane surprises me and knows absolutely nothing. So I asked Shane.
“You do know that ostriches don’t live around here, right?” I asked.
Shane said, “Yeah, I just looked out my window and my first thought was that it was an ostrich. But then I remembered that they are way bigger than that, and I couldn’t tell what kind of bird it was, so I just said it was an ostrich.”
I think he knows “ostrich.”
And now, in addition, he knows “wild turkey.”