I noticed that the baby squabs today were out of the nest. I took a look around the patio and noticed both parents carefully watching their babies in the patio area. The squabs are already looking quite different. They grow so fast!
One of the baby squabs actually jumped/flew up to the patio wall, but I snapped the picture of the sibling that sat still resting in the garden.
Here are some new pictures:
Over the weekend, before they left the nest
Little squab sitting in the patio garden area
Closer look at the squab
In the meantime, my belly is growing very very fast, especially this past month. I hope that this rate of growth will not continue because I don’t want to imagine what I’d look like in 2 more months!
It has been nearly a month since I last posted about the mourning dove nest with the two eggs found in my patio. James and I have been careful to not disturb the birds but have been secretly concerned in the last two weeks that we have not seen the babies as they should have hatched. The mother has been sitting on the nest for a long time, and I hoped that she’s been sitting on her hatched babies to keep them warm. Finally, with record heat over the weekend, we got to see the two babies!
mommy dove with her babies
Two little squabs
Today was the first time I did not see the mother or father with their babies. I guess since it is 90 degrees out today, they don’t really need to be sitting on the baby squabs to keep them warm!
I already have a will, and the reason is because I know that I most certainly will go someday, and I don’t know when and how.
According a to 2007 study by the self-help Web site Legalzoom, 70.2% of American adults overall and 74.4% of parents with children under 18 had no will or other estate documents. This is kind of a scary thought — being a parent actually means that you are LESS LIKELY to have a will. Given that the chances of a person dying someday is 100%, I thought that this was interesting. Wouldn’t the assumption that the parents would die before their own children, not the other way around, be a good reason for more parents to actually have a will?
As I read on I find out the reason:
“Nearly one out of five respondents with minor children cited guardianship issues as a deterrent to preparing a Last Will. Similarly, 42.3 percent of respondents had not decided who would serve as a guardian to their children in the event of their death. As a result, 74.4 percent of parents still did not have a Last Will and Testament, despite the fact that 79 percent of parents noted the importance of creating this legal document.”
Wow. That is a terrible reason to not have a will… especially considering if the parents do not specify arrangements for their children, the decision is left to the state. The children will be ward of the state until the courts can make that decision for you. The idea of my children spending even one minute is foster care is scary to me.
There were other reasons cited for not having a will — cost and time… so I did a bit more research on this one.
To prepare a will with a traditional attorney costs about $700. Legalzoom costs about $80, Nolo sells Quicken Willmaker software for about $39, and there are other sites that offer online forms for as little as $15. You will still need to get the document notarized, and that usually will run $10 to $20. As for the time, I think the most time consuming aspect comes from knowing what you want and making a decision, though a will can be changed so it’s not as if there is no flexibility.
Given that parents can easily spend $10,000 in the first year of a child’s life alone, spending even $700 to prepare a will doesn’t really seem like it should be so hard. Cost and time are simply not good enough reasons to not have a will done. My husband and I spent a total of 5 hours over the span of 2 days deciding the issue of guardianship for our unborn child in the event of our deaths. The decision took less than a full day’s work.
The most compelling reason for me to revise this will in preparation for the birth of my child is: If I die when my child is young, this will be the most (and perhaps the only) concrete evidence of my love for my child. Nothing else I do will matter more as they won’t really be able to remember very much of me if they are too young. The fact that I thought enough of my children to take the time to prepare a will and make sure that they are taken care of even without me is something that will stay with them long after I am gone.
After all, the most important thing that parents can teach and give their children is the ability to get along without them.
I have always been fairly comfortable and practical about my mortality. You know what Benjamin Franklin said about death and taxes…
When James and I got married, I made sure I had: a healthcare directive, a will, a prenuptial agreement written up, and I checked on my life insurance. It was pretty simple — I just made sure I had enough coverage to have something left over after funeral costs and paying some bills. I didn’t really need to worry too much about my husband — we both work and I felt pretty confident that he would live fine on his salary alone. Now that I am pregnant, I realized that I would need more life insurance than I did before. If I passed away for any reason, then my husband would be left with a child to take care of and here wouldn’t be a second income to help deal with child care or cost of education. Our child was not unplanned, but I didn’t plan enough ahead to have this life insurance thing covered. I can still get life insurance, but as a pregnant woman, I can expect my premiums to cost me more, maybe up to 50% more.
This realization lead to me to think about reasons why my life insurance cost would go up, and the leading cause of death for pregnant women:
According to a CDC study from 2005, auto accidents accounted for 44 percent, homicide accounted for 31 percent of maternal injury deaths, and other unintentional injuries for 13 percent and suicide for 10 percent.
Another CDC study in 2007 indicates that maternal mortality rates in the Unites States is going up, possibly due to rise in obesity, caesarian sections, and new methods of accounting.
The rate of maternal death directly related to pregnancy or birth appears to be rising in the United States. In 1982, the rate was approximately 7.5 deaths per 100,000 live births. By 2004, that rate had risen to 13.1 deaths per 100,000 births. By 2005, the rate was 15.1 deaths — the reason for this may be the rise of maternal age.
Another reason why insurance companies are reluctant to cover expectant mothers is the risk of post natal depression immediately after the birth. Though insurance won’t pay in the event of suicide, so this reasons seems unfair to say the least.
Even if you are not pregnant, it is important to know why it is sooo important to have car insurance and life insurance:
According to the CDC, accidents ranks as the number 5 cause of death in the United States. Accidents are the fifth leading cause of death, behind only heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic lower respiratory diseases.
For people between the ages of 1 and 41, accidental deaths are the leading cause of death in the nation, and they’re increasing at a greater rate than any of the other top causes of death.
Top cause of accidental death is motor vehicle accidents, followed by poisoning, falls, choking, and drowning.
For more information on your odds of dying, here are two very interesting references to read:
Indeed, it is not impossible to get life insurance while pregnant, just more difficult. I need to be getting me some life insurance, even if it costs more! As Margret Mitchell puts in Gone With The Wind, “Death, taxes and childbirth! There’s never any convenient time for any of them.”
I recently received an email newsletter that really annoyed me. It annoyed me so much, not only am I feeling like I want to complain about it, I want to unsubscribe if I see this as a trend.
I just hate it when the newsletter has a subject line that has no content support whatsoever within.
Here’s the example:
subject is unrelated to newsletter content!
I just hate it when I feel like an ass for actually taking the time and attention to read something and am not rewarded for my efforts!
