mother's day out

ever since i brought him home, i've tried to give pippin as much time out of his cage as possible. he usually has a little over an hour before i leave for work in the morning and around four hours in the evening. on the weekends, as long i was in the house, he was out of his cage and on my shoulder. i got to where i could vacuum with him riding up there. one thing i couldn't do with his "assistance" was work on anything crafty. so after three years, i'm finally carving out time for myself on saturday and sunday. i've given myself permission to park him in his cage with his tape of PBS kid shows. when we go into his room and i turn the tape on with sesame street, he starts asking, "birdie go? birdie go bed?" that's his all purpose expression for going into his cage and what he always says when i leave for work. i tell him that i have work to do. then he tells me, "bye bye! be good be good boy!" and settles down on his perch to whistle and chatter at the television. he's learning the theme song to "caillou," one of the animated shows. i think it's always harder on the moms than it is on the kids...