Shedding Some Light

How much difference does two years make?  Here is Charis opening a belated 2nd birthday present all by herself while Kol cries in the background.  It's incredible to remember that two years ago, she was that tiny, helpless little person!  And here she is, tearing into a package with rapt intensity!

Kol seems to have a touch of jaundice, so I brought his monkey mat to Monique, and she put him in the sun to catch some light.  For babies who are born at home, this is the best way to get rid of their jaundice--natural sunlight.

It seems to agree with Kol as he basked happily for a quarter of an hour.

His precious little feet catch the sunlight, highlighting every wrinkle.

Once his "sun time" was over, we pulled the shade down a bit so he could open his eyes in the dimmer light, and he looked around curiously.

When I went to help Monique this morning, I took her the egg that Mercy laid for Kol.  As she and I were chatting, she asked me if it hurts chickens when they start to lay eggs.  I told her that I'm not sure, but I think it must because sometimes I've noticed that the first egg or two has a bit of blood on the shell.

And when we fed the chickens tonight and I collected the eggs, the "girls" had provided their own illustration.  At left is Esmerelda's egg; next is the first egg from (I presume) Grace, the other Naked Neck; next is the second egg laid by Mercy; at right is a green one laid by Gypsy.  Note the spots of blood on Grace's small, pale egg--her first.  Note, also, that Mercy's shiny deep-brown egg is longer and larger than the one she laid yesterday.  I would expect this to be more the size of her regular eggs, and I expect that Grace's next ones will be larger.  It's very interesting to me, never having seen a Naked Neck egg, that they both seem to be narrower and pointier than the Ameraucana eggs.  I guess that's lucky, because now I can tell which ones are Mercy's so I know to give them to Jim and Monique.