Did you read that title to the tune of Baby Shark? Is it now stuck in your head? Sorry.. But I promise this story is worth it.
As the only morning person in my house, mornings are usually extra hard for me. My family is hard to get moving so this Tuesday morning was a treat because a baby deer gave us the laugh we all needed to start our day.
Mike was attaching masks to mask chains for the kids and looking out the front window. He suddenly says “I think there’s a baby deer in the neighbor’s front garden”. O my gosh, we all rush to the window to admire the sweet baby deer. We ooh and ahh, talk about how mama deer leave their babies near humans so other predators don’t come get them, and how the baby deer will stay safe. Everett asks me if I’ll watch the baby deer while he goes to school to make sure it stays safe.
Of course. But why did the mama deer pick the neighbor’s garden to leave her baby? I’m completely offended by her apparent snub of my garden. “I hope she leaves her baby in our yard tomorrow, I’ll take such good care of it” I lament to my family. Wow, it’s obviously been a rough month as I’m seeking external parenting validation from a wild animal. But let’s not unpack that now.
We must continue getting ready for school, and the false hope that we might make the bus. My kids haven’t caught the school bus in 6 weeks so false hope it really is.
A few minutes later Mike goes back to the window, “it hasn’t moved at all, are we sure it’s a baby deer’?
“I don’t know, Mike, your children haven’t moved at all either and we need to leave”! But of course I must investigate so I walk outside and to the middle of yard (in my pajamas but that’s hardly noteworthy because it happens too often) and I peer across the street to the garden...suddenly I scream back to Mike at the door -
“IT’S A FREAKING STATUE”!!!
At this point I can’t stop laughing. We spent 15 minutes obsessing about the safety of this baby deer and hoping it would be left in our yard to protect tomorrow.
While alone it’s a funny story - I have two very critical components that I cannot stop laughing about. We have lived here for 4 years, how have we never noticed this deer statue?
And secondly, I almost made it worse - I wanted to text the neighbor and tell her to not come out her front door because she would disturb the baby. Mike told me it was too early to bother the neighbors.
O my goodness, so glad I listened to him. She would have obviously realized that it was her statue. I was going to tell her to stay in her house because of a statue! That’s been there for 4 years and we’ve never noticed it. Embarrassment avoided. But not enough to stop me from sharing this story for the entire internet to read.
We are already the neighbors that people talk about. You know the ones - kids running around outside, loud (I’d love to blame the kids but have you met me? I’m included in the loudness), random toys in the front yard, and Everett spent most of the quarantine naked in the front yard.
Hope you enjoyed our baby deer statue story, and you can also watch me tell the story in my Instagram highlights. But if and when there is a real baby deer in our yard, we will be ready to protect it!
P.s. Dear Neighbors K and J - if you somehow stumble upon this blog, your landscaping looks great and would make an amazing home for a real baby deer.
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