Lucy's Square Meals

Lucy, our cat, likes to eat.  She begs and begs us for food.  Today she
said, "Give me something to eat, I'm starving.  You haven't fed me in
weeks!"  So, we gave her four orange mice. 

Lucy said, "That was a great square meal but I'm still hungry -- give me
more to eat!  I'd love if it could be another square meal but even bigger
this time, meow!"  So we gave her nine blue chipmunks. 

Of course, that was only a tiny snack for Lucy...[I want things to fall
from the sky! the kid interjects]...and she wanted another square meal,
bigger than the one before.  So, we got some of the green birds that were
flying around up in the sky.  As before, the meal had to be bigger than
the last one, so let's count out four birds in a column, but look!  That's
not a square, that's a rectangle!  If we add four more, that's still a
rectangle...oh look!  Four columns of four green birds in each column
make a square that is bigger than the square of blue chipmunks.  How
many birds did she eat all together? 

I can't imagine Lucy is still hungry....she IS?!?  What does she want to eat
this time?  Okay, a square meal out of cubes of pink cheese.  How many
cubes of cheese will she get....?  I think that's enough food for Lucy, don't
you?

There was actually quite a bit of buy-in from the kid on this story,
especially when I was 'trying' to figure out how to make the green square
bigger than the blue one.  She actually leaped in to help her apparently
inept mother, ha!