We waited and waited and waited and eventually they both hopped back in the nest and went to sleep again.

We had no more time to watch because the time had finally come: it was time to go to the doctor. The high spirits we had been anticipating were missing. We were all in bad moods. My mother felt horrible, I had insomnia again last night and didn't get to sleep until after 3:30 a.m.; Peach woke up at 3:30 and was awake until 5. So we were all kind of down to begin with and the weather (rain) wasn't helping.

But there would be none of the "I have to cancel my appointment because I don't feel well" this time.

There was almost no wait, the cast got removed and my mother was very upset about the look of her leg, the atrophy of the calf muscle, the wrinkled, scaly skin. But the cast was off and the next stop was the x-ray room, where the tech said it all looked "beautiful."

Then we saw the doctor, who was very pleased with her progress. He had her put in a walking boot with directions for modified weight bearing with her walker. She was a little disappointed in not graduating to something small, around her ankle, but I think she's very happy that she can WALK again. I anticipate she'll have that calf back in shape in no time.

When we left the hospital, we ran some errands -- Peet's for coffee and CompUSA for a digital camera for Peach and Bob (a surprise from my mother to thank them for all the help they have been through all of this).

Then home to try out the new boot, walk around on it and finally actually allow herself to NOTICE how things are not the way she would have them, so more straightening up, all using the walker.

We also played a game of Canasta, with new cards, because Peach refused to play with the old ones.

But my mother was tired, so she went to bed to take a nap, Peach started learning her new camera and I began to notice that there was again a lot of activity in the nest. I missed -- by literally seconds filming the moment when the first baby flew out of the nest. The second followed soon after (I missed that too). They had...uh...cast off from the nest into the world (see the connection?)

One of them flew into the wall of the house, another tried vainly to find a foothold on the tiny window frame before he landed on the floor. Eventually they found their way to the metal table, fluffed up their feathers, and began to find out what it's like to weather a huge storm in the cold, cruel world.

Mama came and fed them on the porch and I was able to get video of that, which will eventually go into a "life cycle" video I hope to put together when I get home.

I smiled when my mother got up and shuffled out into the family room, testing her "new" foot in the new boot while outside, the baby doves were getting their own land legs and practicing walking around on the porch.

When we finally closed the front curtains, the babies were huddled together on the porch railing of the house and we are hoping no cats come calling tonight. My mother says that babies usually hang around the porch for a couple of days before flying off. I'm sure, given the interest by other doves in the nest, that it there will be very little time (if any) which will elapses before the next family gets its start on the front porch.

The difference is that by the time the next babies are ready to leave the nest, my mother will have improved to where she can leave her own nest on her own two feet again.

I was going to go home tonight, but the storm kept me here, which was a good thing because Kaiser called with a physical therapy appointment for my mother for tomorrow morning , so I'm sticking around to take her to that and will head home afterwards.