r.i.p. kipper

The Adorable Six-Year-Old Niece is currently out of town enjoying a vacation in Mexico with her cousins. My sister (her mother) couldn't join them because she's far too pregnant to travel (I'm going to be an aunt again in early April! Woo hoo!)

My sister was enjoying some quiet time and free reign in the house until this morning when tragedy struck. I was just informed that Kipper, my niece's beloved parakeet, was found motionless on the bottom of his cage this morning.

Sadly, Kipper is no more. Luckily the niece was not around to see the corpse and for all she knows, he's still alive and kicking. As luck would have it, I'm heading out to New Jersey tonight to attend a Devils game with my father so I have been enlisted to aid and abet my sister in finding a replacement bird in the hopes of tricking my niece and preventing her from certain heartbreak.

Why does it feel like my life has suddenly become an episode of Full House?