Bubber Birdie

So Birdie is getting very good at getting her point across. In the morning, she will let us know if she wants yogurt or cereal. She is better at saying cereal, so if she wants yogurt, and you are a big dum-dum and don't catch that, she'll let you know by bellowing "No!" and pushing the cereal away as it heads toward her.

Tonight, we had minestrone soup and bread with butter for dinner. Before we'd all sat down, we found Clara at the table, where she'd scaled her high chair, helping herself to the butter--with Julie's butter knife.

Once we sat down, Birdie spent the entire meal merrily chirping "bub-ber," by which she, of course, meant butter. She was eager to secure more bubber, on bread, before she'd even finished whatever piece happened to be in her mouth, so as you conjure this scene in your head, you have to picture the bubber chirps periodically rising in pitch and increasing in frequency as they issued from Bubber Birdie. (When made to say please, she would say "peeeeeeeeeeas.")