Elvenking

Isaac is about two and a half years old coming up in May. I think RayP is right. LOL.

...get all excited when I brush my hair. Isaac is always right with me during my morning routine. It doesn't matter what he is doing, as soon as he sees me brushing my hair, he gets all excited and sometimes pants too. He tries to chase the brush around my head while I am brushing. Then he will pump his neck like he is going to feed me. Often, he does regurgitate a little and I have to hide when I brush my hair. So why do you think he gets so excited.

You know...the funny thing about this...is you can get a cheap keyboard for about 10 dollars, and most bird toys are more than that.

LOL...that is too cute.

Since about 3 days ago...Isaac has been trying his best to say 'cup'! It is the cutest thing...because he is so hung up on making the final 'p' sound of the word...he makes a special sound just for that part. I am trying to tell him that its okay to stop at first part cause it already sounds complete.

Love has come home again. I hope you and your new friend have a wonderful adventure together. Congratulations!

Yeah, he loves our little time in the shower. He never fails to go through a lot of the sounds and things he says. He is so sweet. And he does tend to say the new words when he can't see me lookin. I will continue with our little lessons and let you know if he picks up on anything else.

Well...the shower is the only place he starts repeating these lessons. When we are doing our little sessions on the floor. He does nothing but pay very close attention. I have never seen a bird concentrate more. He wants to learn.

Now he says two words in my voice. "Fooork" and "Booowwl". He says it with the precise inflection and everything. Pretty neat. BUT, he only practices our lessons when he is sitting on the shower curtain rod while I shower in the morning. Anyone have any idea why he would only choose that time to show his skills?

LOL....my baby really started saying "Fooork" very clearly this morning. He really nails the 'k' part of it now! He said it about 10 times in the bathroom this morning and it was really good. Of course, I was dancing around happy with his progress. He really does pay attention! I can honestly say that even with few sessions we have together on the floor examining household items, he really listens and tries to communicate. It's like bird school.

You know, I bet you are right about this. I have to set up a recorder to capture him. He likes to do this thing sometimes where he just sits on top on the bathroom door in my back room and he just loves the acoustics of the bathroom and the sound of the fan running. I can leave him back there for an hour and a half sometimes, and he is just super chatty. Sometimes I think I hear talking in between the noises but it's hard to hear him down the hall. It would sure be an interesting experiment.

First rule of Flight Club, don't tell anyone about Flight Club......LOL....sorry....I just could not resist. The video was so awesome. It always makes me well up a little to see the birds having fun and flying around like that. I wish I could get something like that going in my area. It looks fun!

So I have been doing things with Isaac like sitting on the floor, holding things up and saying what they are. Then I will do different things with the items and explain what I am doing. From this,and in my last update, he has become a little bird who likes to go around and stand cups that are laying on their side straight up. Clever little guy. Well over the last couple nights, he has been trying to say 'fork' and last night, 'bowl'. He is having trouble doing my lower voice (my regular talking voice), but I can surely tell what he is trying to tell me. I wonder if he will refine the pronunciation more as we go on. The way he stares at me when we interact, I can tell he is thinking so intently. It's amazing! The things he has learned to say, are all the things I say to him in a higher pitched playful voice. So I am wondering if I should continue to encourage him to talk in my higher voice or should I try to continue to pronounce things normally. Suggestions are welcome and appreciated. He is currently trying to say the two new words in my talking voice. I will see how that goes. I have only heard him try to say them on a handful of occasions. Even though I get so excited when he tries to say them, he seems to be tentative with saying them. I love working with him though, he is a very attentive student.

Oh trust me...what you say is the norm. I just went out today and replaced another set of drink glasses. He broke every last one of my beer glasses too. That is kind of what makes it that much more amazing.

I would push beyond the security guards to see if this isn't just some blind-eyes view of the rules. I hate it when people hear a rule and interpret it to the letter regardless of context. Police and security are great at this. Try other avenues. Otherwise, that sucks. Our school used to have guinea pigs, snakes, lizards....all kinds of stuff. So go higher up the chain explain the situation and find out for sure. As a child, I would have loved being at school that much more if a bird was there.

I am a strong advocate for letting them fly, but do know that the level of responsibility goes up tremendously. I can see the reasons people have to clip birds, I just don't follow that school of thought due to my personal views of birds and how important flight is to them whether they are aware of it or not. I can see how a bird might not miss that which it has never had, but if I could fly...I would want to be allowed to. I tell you...the moment I saw my baby flap his little way off the ground, I was so proud of him that my decision was pretty much made for me. Also, the way he simply seeks me out for companionship by flying to where ever I am when he wants to come see me, is really a good feeling. Flight is beautiful in itself. The biggest downside of having a flighted bird is ensuring that he\she never gets out (away). For this, I establish the best relationship with my bird so he knows where safety and love is. Freedom for a home-raised bird is usually not a good prospect. Many a good-hearted-owner have lost their bird. If you are like me, there is a constant moral battle as to what is right and if keeping birds as companions is really an evolved thing to do beyond just wondering if you should let them have flight. The relationships that are built with these birds will draw you closer to understanding them and feeling for them if your heart is in the right place.

The biggest thing Isaac has destroyed was my Droid 2 phone with the slide-out tactile keyboard. I fell asleep with this phone in my pocket. Isaac chewed the seams off my pants pocket to rip it open....got the phone out and chewed all the keys off the tactile keyboard. That is when I found out that a new one without a contract agreement is around 600 dollars. He has cost me a lot of money in keyboards, I am almost out of ceramic and glass cups...can't keep a full set to save my life. My computer chair is something of a sight to behold...lol....I will have to post a picture sometime.

A funny note regarding this. Isaac will actually be more mischievous when I am looking right at him! Take the tweeters on my speakers for instance. He will calmly sit on top of this speaker when i am not looking. If I go outside for a second, he likes to retreat to this location as it is the perfect vantage point for him to be if something unexpected should happen or someone else should come in. Everytime I come back in, he is on top of that speaker but he is not going for the tweeter. It is when i am sitting at the computer, and he is trying to get my attention that he will threaten to bite the tweeter. He will actually bring his head close to it first...and look at me....waiting for me to stop him or scold him. He will sometimes say "BOOOOY!" like I do when I scold him. His next move is to place his beak right next to the tweeter and make click sounds with his beak....like he is faking tearing it up. By that time, he has me, I am up out of my chair chasing him off the speaker. That is a blatent example of him playing the hell out of me. LOL. I know it's not the same point...they can get into trouble when yer not looking, but maybe not always when yer not looking

It IS a phenomena how close you can get to a Grey...and how fast. If someone would have tried to explain to me how much in love I would fall with this bird, I would have laughed at them. I have the very same fears that a mother would over her very own blood-born child. I think about all of his possible futures and try to ensure the best for him. All of my plans revolve around making sure he is okay and well taken care of. I love him more than I think I have ever loved any living being. He did get out once, and he is fully flighted so yeah....he got around. I had to spend about 24 hours without him, and those were some of the darkest hours. The house just died without him. The empty cage, no sounds....it was all haunting. That said, my little friend ended up flying right back to me on the next day, and I bawled my eyes out with joy. I get choked up just thinking about it. To be so in love with something as fragile as a Grey is a big risk, with a lot of amazing and beautiful things along the way. Yes, we love Greys like they were our own kind. The love is worth it.

I have to admit...I was laughing a little about the head fly-by's. Isaac likes to do this when I am getting ready to feed him. I actually love it...sometimes I can feel his feet skim my head. He is very accurate about how close he comes. Anyway, Isaac is expressing his excitement, but it seems like your lil guy is expressing his jealousy there. Also, Isaac would love to help me sweep or use anything with a handle. Isaac has a general habit of even biting my hand if I am holding something he wants or doesn't want me holding. I have no idea how to curb it. Like you say, he is flighted and the point of caging him can be lost in trying to do it. So now, i just understand that I have to do some ninja crap if I want to change TV channels and the like. I await a better solution just as eagerly as you.

Pedro is my Green Cheek Conure...my original lil buddy. He is super sweet and my daughter's favorite bird. It is so funny you bring this up regarding whistling. Isaac loves to start it and look to me to finish. Even a simple wolf whistle...he will do the first part...and wait for me to do the next. I have not encouraged it in any way...I try to get him to do them all on his own...but he constantly does the first part and want me to help finish. Then he likes to sit in the reverb-heavy bathroom and go through all the sounds. He will whistle about 60% of the Andy Griffith song...he has problems with the inconsistant transistions between the repetative parts. It's cute....but he blows me away with his timing and accuracy with the parts he does know. I try to encourage whatever he seems to like. I love him.

Gosh this broke my heart. I am so sorry. Hopefully in time you are inspired to try another beautiful Grey spirit.

It's about the only thing in my life that I am absolutely sure of!! Rediculously so.

Thanks for watching my little guy. I am trying to engage him in more interactive activities. It's funny what he latches on to.

Okay....sorry for the low quality but I caught the lil bugger with my phone. He's camera shy so it takes him a bit to get to it.