Mama Loves: Bird Watching

Welcome to another fantastic week of Mama Loves! This is a linky party where mamas can share anything that has made your life easier as a mama.

Maybe you've found:

• a toy or book that captivates your child(ren)
• gear you just can't live without  
• a recipe your choosy toddler gobbles down  
• a parenting book that you've found perspective changing
• an activity that wears your kid out (these lead to good naps, which we all love)
• an outfit that flatters your post-baby body and makes you feel fabulous

Share it with us! Blogging has made me a better mama, because I've learned about all kinds of great things, like those listed above, from mamas just like you. Here's your chance to share it with all of us!

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If you'd told me a year ago that we would be a bird-watching family. I might have thought you were insane.

This is what I think of when I think of bird watchers:



So.

We aren't "carry-a-canteen-of-water-and-big-binoculars" bird watching family but we do love watching birds.

Right outside our livingroom window we have a two-sided hook, where we hang a plant and a hummingbird feeder. It's kind of hard to explain, so here you go:

This summer the girls have loved spotting the hummingbirds at our feeder! They will stop what they're doing and run to the window, signing "bird" the entire way there, just to get a closer look.

Of course, this typically scares away the hummingbirds, so they wave goodbye, and wait for the next one to come along. This is never discouraging for them--I love their tenacity for bird-watching!

I noticed our daughters' love for hummingbirds, and recently decided to add a finch feeder to our little display outside the same window. (Notice it in the above picture to the left of the hanging plant).

For several days we didn't get any birds at our feeder, and I'd begun to think my purchase was a huge mistake.

Then, we saw them! 

They've continued to visit our feeders, so much so that we're refilling them at least once a week.

Our girls love spotting the birds at the feeder--it's so much fun to see their delight. They run at the window and pound their greeting to the birds on the glass. It sends the birds flying away, flashing their vibrantly colored wings about, of course, but the girls never lose their enthusiasm for spotting the birds.

I'm so excited to teach them about the different kinds of birds that visit our feeders, as they get older too--I consider our canteen-less and big binocular-less bird watching to be a great teaching tool.

If you have a window at your children's eye level, I'd urge you to consider feeding whatever local birds you have living there.

We've had so much fun doing it this year!

Can't wait to see what you're loving this week!