2 + 2 = 4

Bruce and I stared at the ducklings pretty much all day. Another one hatched out last night, bringing the total to three.

They ventured off the nest for the first time this morning. The nest is next to our back door, and the pond is in the front yard so it's a long hike.
They gobbled up bugs (and there are plenty of them) along their journey.

Finally the pond is in sight.
Babies' first swim. How do they automatically know what to do?
Of course there are so many lilypads they can just about walk across the water.

While momma duck was off the nest, my mom checked out the remaining four eggs. One of them had a little crack in it. When she picked it up, it started chirping at her as if to say "Let me out! Let me out!" The ducks were off the nest for about an hour, then we chased them back to the nest so the mom would be there when the next duckling hatched.

It took another five or six hours for the duck to hatch out, but it finally made it. You can see it as the black slimey thing laying there by the duck's foot. Now we have FOUR ducklings!
Bruce picked some wildflowers for me. What a sweetheart!
Here he is with his "Chick Hicks" race car. He keeps running around and saying "Holy shoot!" - perhaps the only phrase from the movie, Cars, that I don't want repeated. He's had two time-outs for saying that today.

There are lots of flowers around and so there are plenty of bees too.