Alicia growing up.

My sweet little squirrel was getting bigger by the day. Everything was new and exciting to her. Every day I would go to my parents to learn about the lesson of the day. One day my mom told me to give her a little piece of banana. Oh, the joy of munching on that soft yummy treat seemed to be too much for her to handle. By the time she was done with it, we were both covered with sticky goo. I had to give her a quick wash to clean her hands and face. She had learned to grab her milk bottle with both hands and suck on it until it was empty. At times I would be afraid that her tummy would explode. 

I kept encouraging her to come out of her hat, but my mom was very happy to have her stay in it. After couple of weeks, one day as I was sitting next to her, she decided to take a leap of faith and jumped on my arm. I got so excited that I gave her a little push to help her get further up to my shoulder. She did. She discovered the wonderful path of arm to shoulder to another arm and back again.  What an exciting thing that was. It was as if she was on a roller coaster. She kept running up one arm, across the shoulders, and down the other arm, and then kept repeating it over. My mom kept watching in horror and telling me to stop teaching her bad habits. It was too late. She had learned a wonderful lesson, and it was way too exciting for her to stop now.  That was her first move of coming out of the hat, but she kept it to just that. If we sat next to her, she would jump on us and do the roller coaster ride, but if we stayed away from her, she would stay either in her hat, or get out and stay on the chair which the hat was placed on.

In a few days she was ready to venture further but wasn’t sure what to do next, as she was getting mixed signals from us. I was always encouraging her to take a risk and go for the ride, but my mom would tell her to stay put and be a good girl. She would crouch and stare at us while we were away from her chair, trying to decide whether to make the jump or not. After a few trial and errors, finally she learned to jump from her chair up to the other ones. In no time she became an expert in acrobatics, constantly jumping up and down the furniture and walls and of course us. We had to wear hoodies around her to cover our necks and shoulders. She had really sharp nails.

She had to learn to go outside, and she had to learn it fast, and that was a scary moment for all of us. My parents kept pressuring me to think of something. We all knew she couldn’t stay in an apartment. She was spending the nights sleeping in my parents enclosed shower stall. I had placed a baby blanket in there for her and turned it into her bedroom. Later on, she had learned to come home and go sleep in her bedroom when it would get too cold outside.

Here is a picture of her resting in her bedroom catching up on her beauty rest.

My little baby was growing up too fast, and I had to think like a mama squirrel to teach her the survival skills she would need for the outside world. I was heart broken. I wanted so badly to just keep her, but there was no way. It wouldn't have been fair to her. She deserved a chance to life as nature intended it. I knew it would be tough and challenging, but it had to be done.