ONE SMART GIRL!

Beignet has referred to herself as "I" for a long time. Now she has begun using begun using more words in her sentences. Instead of saying "I'm so smart", she says "I'm a smart girl". The evolution of her language abilities has been interesting.

Today as I talked on the phone Beignet carefully took all of the clips off her cage liner and threw them on the ground, thus releasing the liner papers. Then she climbed underneath the cage floor while hanging onto the bars and browsed through the tidbits that had dropped onto the lower liner. Once she realize that she might be stuck she worked through how to remedy the situation and finally pushed herself upside down onto the floor bars and strenuously pulled herself up between the skirt and the door. There is now now portion of her cage which she does not OWN! When we clean the cage she always tells us "NO!"

Counting continues to be a favorite of hers. She learned the numbers 6-10 with only two demonstrations. I believe she understands more, but I only have 10 fingers (which she touches to show me the number) so I'll have to find a new way for her to show me numbers. She can add and subtract (I think she knew this inherently as opposed to me teaching it to her). I watched some of the Alex YouTube videos and decided to try some of those ideas with her. In one session she knew how to count the number of one color in a collection of items, how to tell the difference between rock, wood, or plastic, and how to tell the difference between large and small. She is such an eager learner, but not a performer. She has to be in the right mood to do these things for other people.

Beignet keeps raising the bar for me. What to teach her next...? Something I think I'm the one that is being taught.

Every once in a while I think of the humble beginnings of this abused bird and realize how horrible it must have been for her with a mind with such great capabilities to be kept in such squalor.