BEAUTY SALON

Ms. Beignet absolutely loves a shower and never misses one with me. If I head back to the bathroom in the morning and forget to take her, I get a loud reminder that she has been forgotten. I equate it with a very loud clearing of a human's throat. Ahem! When we have finished in the shower I always use coconut oil on my body. What is left over on my hands I use on her beak and toes. She likes to lick it off my fingers.

The next to last time she got a bath her front toenail almost pierced my skin. I decided it was time to learn how to cut her toenails. Her trust level has gone way up and her understanding of preparatory remarks by me has gone way up. So I told her what would happen and then put a little hand towel on her, laid her on her back and clipped her toenails. She was a little angel.

The next time she had a bath, I once again put the towel around her, but this time she just got held and a head scratch. I'm hoping that I can acclimate her to being held in this manner. It is gentle, she gets a reward and it is something that can be done regularly.

As we near Beignet's (?) 10th Birthday on July 19 I realize that I will have had her half of her life. The other half was torment. When she came to live with us all that I every wanted to do for her was provide her opportunities to become who she can be and wants to be and to provide those opportunities in gentle and careful ways. I had no expectations of her ever stepping onto my hand much less allowing me to clip her toenails. She truly is an amazing parrot that has exceeded by far any expectations I held for her. She just needed to have a good nurturing home.

I count it an honor to have this parrot friend live with us.

DADDY

Beignet has loved Bob from the first day she met him. It isn't just a tolerance, she really loves him, but in a much different way than she loves me. I am her caregiver, her love provider, and her primary person. I correct her and do most of the housework around her cage. Bob gives her veggies and fruit every morning, and gives her more crackers than I do. He was the one that listened for three hours as she learned to say "more". But, Bob doesn't have much physical contact with Beignet because he is concerned about the safety of his fingers. They do help provide the paycheck.

Tonight I was playing the "Step-up Step-Down" game with Beignet (self explanatory game). Since she was quite warmed up and feeling very friendly I encouraged Bob to come over, showed him how to hold his hand and asked Beignet to step up. She hesitated and didn't know if she wanted to, and then we adjusted his hand a little and she stepped right up. I was so proud of her. It was the first time she had gone to another person and felt comfortable. Bob was amazed. He has always used a dowel to pick her up if he needed to. This is a good start.

FIRST FULL SENTENCE

Beignet has been quite busy learning words. We decided that it would be good to learn a word that allowed to use her other words to her advantage. "Want", provided the word and now Beignet says, "want more cracker", "want more water", "want head scratch", "want step-up". It creates a change in her life that allows her to effectively ask for things. "Want more" has become a favorite. It works for everything, but especially lovies.

Well, not one to be outdone by a human, Beignet listened very carefully time after time when I asked her by both signing and speaking to use her words. One night she had asked "Want more", to play a step-up game and I needed to do some other work. I said, "No, all done for tonight." A silence followed..............."I know WORD, step-up!". Well, I could hardly turn down that kind of effort. Well said Beignet.

A few nights later she was busy talking and she said, "I want more cracker." In all of its simple glory she said a complete sentence. She has called herself "I" for a long time and it came in useful to create her full sentence. Of course she got a cracker and of course I praised her and told her how proud I was of her.

Beignet has also become more animated since we have moved to this house. I really believe she likes it here. At first her cage was by two windows, but I think that was a bit much for her, so we moved her to a corner near one window. Now she has a quiet place to feel safe. She comes out onto her perch and watches the hummingbirds come and go (little birds we call them). She loves it. She teases the cats to come near her and then lunges at them. She is definitely queen of the animal household. Both cats are quite respectful and afraid of her.

Beignet has also met her new caretakers while we are on vacations or out of town briefly. Margo and Isaak come and pour love on her and she amazes them with what she knows and can do.