Bird brained

I love my mother in law. Really.

You always hear these jokes about mother in laws and frankly, I've never had to experience any of that because when it came to that department I hit the jackpot.

Not only has she always been extremely loving and supportive of me personally, she will make insane statements. Like last night, after we arrived at the house from a full day of driving, she looked at us and said:

"Tomorrow morning I'll wake up with the girls and you guys can sleep in."

Oh. My. Heavens. My love knows NO bounds!

So it is that this morning when the girls heard an imaginary rooster crow and appeared with the first rays of sun, ready to face a day filled with wonder in a new location, Isaiah and I stayed in bed. Sleeping.

Hallelujah. (I put a pillow over my head to make it even better)

At some point near the decadent hour of 8 am the door to our bedroom creaked open. Mia appeared. Mia disappeared. I heard Mia tell my MIL, "I can't see anything in there!"

Maggie appeared at the door and walked in, stuck her face about a millimeter away from my own and breathed on me. Loudly.

"What's going on?" I asked her.

"I's need to tell you sumting," Maggie said. Then she turned around and walked out of the room.

"Any idea what that was about?" I asked Isaiah. We giggled.

Back in the living room, my MIL gave Mia a flashlight. The door creaked open again and Mia, unskilled in flashlight use but quivering in excitement at getting the chance to use one, flashed the light all over our room. All Over. Including our eyes.

In our newly rested state we thought that was funny.

"What are you doing?" Isaiah asked her.

"Where are the diapers?" she responded.

We got her diapers, she disappeared, and we continued, in horizontal positions, to greet the day calmly, quietly, blissfully. Happily listening to the sound of life going on without us.

Did I mention I love my MIL?

In the background of all of the playing, Beaker, the blue front Amazon parrot who lives in the living room, was having a phone conversation.

I couldn't understand all of it, but could clearly hear, "Right... Oh... Yeah... Right... Yeah... Uh.. And uh... Ok... Bye..." Those were the understandable parts. The whole conversation, as best as I can record it was:

"Hi! Wadda woah...uh.. Wacky wack, yeah, I half but... What? Yeah... Walkee wadda... Right.. I doh watt... Yeah... What's that?" I could hear my mother-in-laws voice in Beaker's conversation. He's very gentle and supportive in his tone.

Beaker has always been at the house, and apparently he loves little girls which is one reason he's so talkative this morning. I have to take Isaiah's word for that because I have not learned the nuances of bird behavior. (Bird-brained behavior I can nail, but only in humans, not in actual birds.) When Beaker sees our girls he starts to flirt, puffing his feathers, climbing close to them on the cage bars and swaying back and forth.

Occasionally Beaker and the girls connect with each other. As we listened this morning Mia and Maggie were playing school and saying their goodbyes. Beaker heard them say "bye" and chirped a saucy "Bye!" at them from the living room.

Mia heard him offered him his own "Bye!"

Beaker said, "I love you! Bye!"

Mia: "Bye!"

Beaker: "Bye!"

(Repeat above "bye-exchange" three times.)

Mia finally says to Beaker, "Why do you keep saying that over and over?!"

Beaker didn't answer.

But he did start laughing. A lot. All for his own enjoyment.

Maggie demanded, "What are you laughing about?!"

Isaiah and I were cracking up. Finally I looked at him and said, "We bred three times and we should probably take care of the offspring."

And he agreed. So we're getting out of bed. I'm going to kiss my MIL and start the day.

Merry Christmas.