Chickens

For the last several weeks, HT's preschool class has been incubating chicken eggs. Yesterday, about an hour after school, his teacher (also a close personal friend) called to say that one was near hatching. I threw the kids in the van and rushed up to the school. We were there waiting, and after about 45 minutes we got to see the new chick come into the world. We rushed home then because there were two games last night. Although it meant dinner after the game instead of before, I didn't mine because how often do we get an opportunity to see that? I had told the kids that I would bring them up before school this morning to see the chick again. However, HT's teacher called again last night, saying that when she had checked on the chick a few hours later, she found it drowned in the water bowl. I explained to the kids this morning what had happened, and our little neighbor was over at the time. HT was sad for a moment, especially since he had been watching the eggs for weeks. The neighbor ,though, added his words of comfort, "It happens all the time in nature. It's the circle of life." Pretty profound for a 9 year old!