The Falconer

Aubrey is definitely a special child.

She's positively adorable, sweet, funny, love able, and LOUD.

At first I found this loudness problem to be a bit irritating.

I mean, I know we all love a very high and loud shrill to accompany our dinner,

but one can only take so much.

But as it turns out, I think her "skill" may turn out to work wonders for our self reliance.

We were at a friends house a couple of months back and our friend says,

"Wow - she sounds like a real life falconer!"

I have thought a lot about that comment over the last couple of months and thought to myself,

"I think he's right!  Let's test it!"

Lucky for me, I just happened to have a pile of mice guts

and a pair of bird handling gloves just lying around.

Who doesn't?

I took Aubrey out in the front yard, slipped on a glove, handed her some mice guts

(and of course told her not to eat them) and watched her waddle a few steps away.

She immediately lifted her left arm, belted out one of her annoying impressive shrieks

and wouldn't you know it...

a massive falcon swooped in for a landing, nibbled away on the mouse entrails

and then stopped to pose for a picture.

Which I thought was nice of him -

not just any one-year-old can manage to call in a carnivorous bird.

A mother must document such a milestone.

We'll never starve, I tell you.

Aubrey will call one in and we'll roast it up.

In the meantime, I hope all you mothers out there with your own falconer's

can handle the hours of "bird calling practice."

It just might pay off someday.

*Parts of this story may or may not be fictional.