Happy doo-doo

I should have learned from our friend, Leigh. On the morning of her birthday she was fishing for something more than "Good morning" from her three-year-old son, Ely. Upon her further prompting he came up with "Good morning, children."

This morning Edith was lying on her changing table singing "Happy happy happy," as she often does when she's in a good mood. Then she changed it to "Happy Mommy." I smiled and said that all she needed to do was add one more word in the middle, since today was Mommy's happy birthday. And she promptly sang, "Happy doo-doo, Mommy." Which is as close as we get to "Happy Birthday to you" these days.

But of all the people ever wished a happy doo-doo -- and there's at least one other, since it turns out today is Edith's teacher's birthday, too -- none ever heard it said so sweetly, as she repeated it again in the afternoon and at random throughout the evening until bedtime, accompanied by the coziest of hugs. That's all the gift I needed. Edith understands about birthdays.