Brief Birdie Anecdotes
In honor of Father's Day, here are some short stories about Birdie.
- Like a million other kids, Birdie has magnetic alphabetic letters to hang on the fridge. For some reason, she has fallen for the 'W'. It has accompanied her on various day trips. When we were in Columbus for Memorial Day we drove by a Waffle House, and she said "that building has a W!" When I wore a WRUW shirt recently, she said "that shirt has a W!" W's are in folks.
- She also has an alphabet puzzle, but for some reason that 'W' there isn't nearly as exciting as the 'B', which she informed us is " Bun's letter." Which it totally is, obviously.
- We've been working on saying "please" and asking for things nicely for a few months, and we just added "Thank You" to the mix a few weeks ago. It's kind of terrifying how quickly she has picked up "Thank You" and uses it contextually appropriately even in situations where "please" wasn't part of the conversation.
- We continue to bike around the neighborhood most nights. Birdie had gotten pretty good at "we have to hold hands to cross the street" and "look both ways," but suddenly she decided that the answer to "what do we do when we cross the street" was "we jump off the curb!" That's lasted for a few weeks now, hopefully she reverts to the correct answer soon enough.
- On our excursions around the immediate neighborhood, the new track she's added to her repertoire is running up a neighbor's driveway until she encounters a car, a gate or a garage door and then running all the way back down to the sidewalk.
- Most our bike nights end up at our neighbor Margaret's house. Margaret has actually lived on the block fewer years than I have, but I hadn't met her until the pandemic started. Sick of being stuck in her house, she started sitting in her front yard every night, and three years later she's probably the best known person on the block. Birdie likes to visit her; Margaret is the only neighbor that she's not super shy with.
- Like a million other kids, Birdie has magnetic alphabetic letters to hang on the fridge. For some reason, she has fallen for the 'W'. It has accompanied her on various day trips. When we were in Columbus for Memorial Day we drove by a Waffle House, and she said "that building has a W!" When I wore a WRUW shirt recently, she said "that shirt has a W!" W's are in folks.
- She also has an alphabet puzzle, but for some reason that 'W' there isn't nearly as exciting as the 'B', which she informed us is " Bun's letter." Which it totally is, obviously.
- We've been working on saying "please" and asking for things nicely for a few months, and we just added "Thank You" to the mix a few weeks ago. It's kind of terrifying how quickly she has picked up "Thank You" and uses it contextually appropriately even in situations where "please" wasn't part of the conversation.
- We continue to bike around the neighborhood most nights. Birdie had gotten pretty good at "we have to hold hands to cross the street" and "look both ways," but suddenly she decided that the answer to "what do we do when we cross the street" was "we jump off the curb!" That's lasted for a few weeks now, hopefully she reverts to the correct answer soon enough.
- On our excursions around the immediate neighborhood, the new track she's added to her repertoire is running up a neighbor's driveway until she encounters a car, a gate or a garage door and then running all the way back down to the sidewalk.
- Most our bike nights end up at our neighbor Margaret's house. Margaret has actually lived on the block fewer years than I have, but I hadn't met her until the pandemic started. Sick of being stuck in her house, she started sitting in her front yard every night, and three years later she's probably the best known person on the block. Birdie likes to visit her; Margaret is the only neighbor that she's not super shy with.