SaladNinja

I do a lot of yoga and meditation after taking a class last semester, and it really does help. I've also used kava before, while I lived abroad in Samoa in the South Pacific. Wonderful stuff! Thanks for all your advice and support, everyone Today has been a rough day for me. I'm really homesick; my family all lives in Illinois. I'll get to see them at the end of July, but it's hard living out here with just Cody. We're still relatively new to the area and we don't really have any friends, so while he's at work it's just me and the Noodle-meister. I think just the boredom is part of what gets to me sometimes; I don't have anything to do but sit and stew in all my worry. Not to mention that Cody's paycheck is 3 days late in the mail for some reason, so we are completely broke and possibly overdrawn in our bank account. I started off the summer with over $1500 from graduation gifts, and its already gone just from bills and trying to survive. I was hoping to save all of that for the move to Hawaii; I don't know how we'll survive without any money to kick-start things. I also accidentally missed my counseling appointment today, which I was really looking forward to. Just a sucky, cloudy day here in Ohio.

We've done all the paperwork, and he only has a 7 day quarantine

We are moving his cage to Cody's parents', along with all of his toys. We bought tons of extra food, too, so he won't have to change diet. We are hoping that spending some time with them and getting him integrated into their routine will help as well, since they will know how to interact with him, how to play, feed, bathe, and cuddle after seeing how we do it. We're trying to make the move as low-stress as possible; Cody keeps telling me to think about just how happy he will be to see us again, which helps

I've always dealt with both anxiety and depression, but recently I've been incapacitated by my panic attacks and generalized anxiety disorder. I'm so worried about moving to Hawaii for grad school, about how I'm going to afford to pay back my student loans after I graduate, about how I'm going to afford my credit card payments this summer...*sigh* I guess money is an issue for almost everyone, I just wish I wasn't so crippled by my constant worry about it. I see a psychologist regularly, and I'm on Cymbalta, Abilify, and Klonopin for my anxiety and depression. Does anyone else here deal with any psychological disorders? Sometimes it really helps to not feel so alone. Love, SaladNinja

I've been on a Vitamin String Quartet kick lately Noodle, however, prefers techno and dubstep! He likes to imitate the beeps and whistles, it's adorable

I'm so sorry to hear about this. I've lost more than my fair share of friends to reckless and impaired drivers. My heart is with you and your loved ones; please let me know if you ever need to talk.

Hello all, We're finally starting to get ready to move to Hawaii! I've been cleaning nonstop for days, and boxes are being packed. However, we've run into some trouble finding an affordable way to bring Noodle with us right away. Cody's parents have agreed to let him live at their house until we can bring him out (hopefully a couple months, max.), but I do have some concerns. Primarily, how will he cope with the separation on top of a new environment? We are planning to spend a couple weeks with him at their house before we go to get him settled in, but I'm worried that he will think we abandoned him. Has anyone else made a difficult move with their baby, or spent significant time away? If so, any advice or information would be HUGELY appreciated. Thanks everybody! <3 SaladNinja and Noodle

AAAAHHH! I haven't had time to post about this since I've been so busy at work, but it's high time it went up here. A couple days ago, Noodle flew out the back door and down about three blocks! His wings are trimmed (not fully clipped) and we didn't even know he could pick up that much velocity and altitude. We found him on the side of someone's house, clucking and whistling for his daddy. THANK GOD he was ok - just a little bump on the nose. Cody brought him home, and he hasn't seemed too shaken up, unlike Cody and I. We almost lost our baby! I guess the moral of this story is that greys can surprise you; we didn't think that Noodle was such a strong flier, especially with trimmed wings, but man can he just power on through. Please, please be careful as the weather warms up with open windows and doors! I don't want to see anyone else go through this or something worse. Happy summer and much love, SaladNinja and Noodle

Thanks for the tip! I checked it out, and the avian quarantine time is only 7 days hopefully Noodle won't be too lonely!

Hello hello, We're officially moving to Hawaii in August! I've started looking into flights, and I was just wondering if anyone had experience flying with their grey, and if so, if you have any tips such as good airlines, etc. I'm going to graduate school for my MA at UH Manoa for Pacific Island Studies Wish us luck!

We named our baby Noodle, and yep, it just kinda popped into our heads after we me him for the first time! One thing you can do if you're stuck on names is just google a baby name website, they always have tons of interesting names you could pick from, or to help inspire you. Good luck, can't wait to hear what you decide on!

Noodle loves random sounds! He does the "tink" of a soda can, some outside bird noises, the noise of water being poured...there are just so many I can't think of them all. He's hesitant about talking but he has a blast with the noises

Noodle recently picked up on a bunch of R2D2 noises from Star Wars! He also burps, hiccups, sings the Close Encounters of the Third Kind song, makes the microwave noise, and a bunch of cell phone noises. Anybody else have some fun sound effects?

Cody missed work today since he isn't feeling well, and I've been working on my thesis all day. I've been watching him & Noodle sit on the couch, watching Fawlty Towers and playing for the past 3 hours Its just about the cutest thing I've ever seen! Cody doesn't realize I can hear him (I have headphones on) but he just has these sweet little conversations with Noodle and feeds him little treats of whatever he's snacking on. I love my boys so much; days like today make it ok that Noodle isn't as close with me, because I can see that he's happy and so, so loved

We've tried multiple dishes, which just results in multiple broken dishes. We've also tried plastic (he chews it up), attaching it to the cage (he still manages to flip it upside down and it's hard to fill). And yeah it is pretty hilarious now that I think about it so feel free to laugh

Noodle has a bad habit of picking up or spilling or dropping his water dish multiple times a day, usually when he wants attention :rolleyes: So today, Cody came home with a "water dish" that he designed for Noodle not to be able to spill. He welded it together with steel and made it incredibly heavy, so the little bugger won't be able to mess with it too much. It worked great for the first 20 minutes or so...no spilled water! Then, I come back to check on him a little later, and he pooped a big fat one right in the new dish. My little man has an attitude problem...there's no way he could have gotten poop in it unless he did it on purpose ::sigh:: I think he's just irritated that he can't spill it anymore, but I'm worried that if we're gone for the day and he gets his water messy or even manages to spill it that he won't have anything to drink. Suggestions (besides bolting it down )?

I'm getting it done on my shoulder, right where he likes to sit

My wedding page is on there, feel free to check it for ideas!

Just wondering if anyone else is as addicted to Pinterest as I am...I even have a board for Noodle:rolleyes: so I'm http://pinterest.com/frostingninja/ if anyone would like to share!

One of my favorite parts about trips with him is when cars with little kids go by and you can see them smiling and pointing at the birdie :] or when people come up to you while you're stopped to ask about him; we've met some really cool people that way. I really wish I could say yes when people asked to touch him, but I think that would be a baaaad idea considering his biting problem haha.

I agree that it can be risky to have them out of the cage in the car, but we've never had a problem with Noodle. If he's out, the windows and doors are child-locked and one of us is always holding/handling him so he won't do anything dumb I just think he likes riding!

Cody and I drove home for the weekend to visit our parents, and we brought the Noodster with in his little travel cage. He sang and played and monkeyed around the entire time! Every time we'd open the sunroof or roll down the window he would play in the breeze and pretend to be a falcon or something :cool: When the windows were up obviously, Cody let him out to see us and get petted, etc. He sat on my headrest for almost two hours of the trip, totally content and preening his tail. He also tried out the steering wheel as a perch, but after we got out of Indiana the road started having curves, hahaha! Just wondering if others have good experienced roadtripping with their grey...any good stories?

It's like that at our house, too! Noodle sings with all of the little outdoor birds in the morning...he works up quite a racket at around 6am

Cody and I have both been under a lot of stress lately which has caused me to be extremely emotional. I was wondering if greys can pick up on emotions like dogs can. When I was crying, Noodle just walked over to me calmly, climbed up my sleeve onto my shoulder, and started giving me kisses! He NEVER interacts with me unless we ask him to or if I need to pick him up. Was he sensing that there was something wrong and trying to help, or is he just finally starting to warm up to me? Parrot kisses are the best when you're feeling down :]

Once I get all the chapters combined into one file, I'll send it your way!