Scolded by my Parrot.

Tonight R and I had sat down to eat dinner, but before I started eating, I decided to check my cellphone. Kai was on his dinner stand next to me, but he hadn't started eating yet. R had started eating already.  Kai looked over at me while I was tinkering with my phone and said, "Eat your food."

I wasn't paying attention, but R said, "I think your bird is saying, "Eat your din?"

So, we sat and listened for a while as Kai proceeded to scold me, demanding I, "Eat your food. Eat your din. Kai, Kai, be a good boy! Eat your food, Kai! Eat your food!" LOL!

I told him, "Okayyy, okay! Look, I'm eating!" Once I started eating, he finally stepped down off his dish and started eating with us. He cracks me up so bad.  Be glad your cats and dogs aren't capable of scolding you, folks.

Another moment of cuteness: while I was at the sink deboning the turkey for dinner, I grunted and went, "Nnnnngh!!" due to difficulty with removing tendons.  Kai, who was perched upon the faucet, looked over at me, wingflipped, and said, "It's okay!" 

♥ Kai ♥

Kai likes to share.

Birds are social animals.  They do everything together, and absolutely hate to be separated from the flock. This means they also eat together, which is why Kai always eats with us at dinner time, and also why he eats when I do if we're in my craft room together.  Earlier, I was eating fish sticks, and since I was starving, I ate them well before Kai was done eating....The following is a transcript of what happened...!

Kai: *Eating a walnut out of the shell, stops to look at M.*
Me: You can keep eating, Kai, I'm full.
Kai: *questioning chirp, followed by...* Want seed? Good seed?
Me: No, that's okay, thank you!
Kai: Want seed. Good boy. *flings the walnut at M.* That's good seed!
Me: *Cracks up, picks the walnut up and pretends to eat it.* Thank you, you're such a good boy!
Kai: Good boy, such a good boy. That's good.

It was so endearing that he felt I should be eating more, and especially that he wanted to share with me.  He often asks me, "That's good?" if I'm eating something he's never seen before, too.  Oddly, he doesn't seem to care for sunflower seeds anymore.  I wonder if it's because he just likes other "good seed"s better.

Kai: Seed?
Me: Okay, Kai, you want seed?
Kai: Seed?
Me: What seed?  Flower (sunflower)? White (pumpkin)? Peanut?
Kai: SEED. (give me a seed, woman!)
Me: Okay, how about Flower seed? *offers.*
Kai: *picks it up and drops it.* Seed?
Me: What about White seed? *offers.*
Kai: *flings that, too.* Want GOOD seed.
Me: What is good seed?? *holds out an assortment.*
Kai: Mmmm!  Good seed.  *selects peanut halve.*  That's good seed.
Me: Hnnnnnnn.....okay, then.  You're such a little diva!
Kai: Kai's a good boy.
Me: Yes, Kai's a good boy.


Good seed also seems to indicate pistachio, pecan, and walnut....

Hello?

It was the cutest thing!  This morning I came downstairs to get Kai out breakfast and, well, just because we hang out in the mornings together while I check email.  I always call through the door before I open it so I won't startle him, then give him a second to wake up.

Me: Good morning, Kai!  Good morning!
Kai: Hello!
Me: Awww!  You're such a good boy! Hello!  Hello, Kai!
Kai: *whistles!*

It was the cutest thing, I swear!  I've taken to saying "Hello!/Good Morning!/I'm back!" when I come in/return to him, and "Be Right Back, BRB!" or "Good Night/ Nighnight!" when I leave for the night.  I think he is beginning to understand the meaning of my various greetings!  He's such a smart boy!

He's so smart!

 

Well, he wins the messiest eater award in our house, but I'm sure he's not as bad as bigger parrots, which must leave proprotionally larger messes!  Kai amazes me.  Just last night, I had started training him how to wolf whistle.  Well, after we came back from running around in Henrietta and having dim sum with Peaches and Thor, I brought him out to play with him - and to my surprise, he wolf-whistled to me!  He has two versions, the actual whistle, then he goes, "Woo woooOooo!"  It's just incredible!  I'm trying to teach him Choo Choo! and other cute things.  Even Hubby was impressed and amused.

Hubby still doesn't particularly care for him, but he didn't like Sacha in the beginning, either.  A cat person till the bitter, catty end - maybe.  Hubby does love Sacha now, though; when he meets other dogs, he says, "They're not Sacha."  :)  Kai keeps nibbling on him, sometimes very hard, which makes Hubby pissed off, but I'm trying to work with both of them - I basically have to train Kai AND Hubby. 

"I'm preening myself to look pretty for you!"

"I'm not scared of the camera at all!"

(Maybe some day he'll make the clicking sound!)

"Why wouldn't you wolf-whistle at me?  Aren't I pretty?"

Kai's Kasa-obake impression!

(A Japanese spirit of an umbrella, which animates after 100 years, and has one leg, one eye, arms, and a tongue that sticks out)

"I'm giving it a ponder..."

"I do like what this bokeh does for me!"

The fact that Kai is able to learn words so quickly makes me excited, but also a little worried.  What if he picks up something....well, inappropriate?  I stream Pandora over my phone while we read in bed, and I realized that NIN's uncensorted version of "Closer" was playing.  I fastforwarded, and White Zombie's "More Human Than Human" started playing, complete with moaning woman.  I told Kai, "PLEASE don't pick these words up!  Don't listen!"  Haha, oi.

Parrotal Advisory...Explicit Content!  You know how it goes when you're learning a foreign language - you always learn the expletives first.

Another note on Kai's awesomeness?  He really seems to love metal!  We've been watching the Metalocalypse boxed set that Sister H gave us for Christmas, and he chats up a storm, particularly when the songs are playing!  I'm playing Moonspell for him right now and he's singing/talking while puffing up excitedly and wiggling his tongue, which is really cute.  I'm not sure if it's the guitars or the drums that do it for him?  One of my kittens is in my lap, and he's not afraid of her, nor is she particularly interested in him, which is really good - that doesn't mean I'll be leaving them alone together, though.

On another note, between the sparrows and that naughty squirrel, all the suet in my suet feeder is gone.  We also found some sort of animal track coming up next to our feeders, which looked like either a cat or a fox, which is a big disturbing.  I had to take the Sky Cafe down for a while until we can get the pole mounted into the ground.  It's just too low hanging from the shepherd's hook, and it turns into a squirrel buffet instead.  Time to get a baffle!  Doh.  I keep seeing an adorable little American Tree Sparrow mixed in with the Europeans.  He stands out like a sore thumb with his red little head! 

Hubby and I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday and I picked up two parrot books, a really cool raptor identification book, a book on ravens, and...I forget what else.  I mostly just stayed in bed and read, because I caught a stomach bug that parked me no less than 10 feet from the bathroom for emergency purposes... I'm still feeling icky now, but with a little sleep and hydration, I should be good to get up early tomorrow and deliver my friend's super late Christmas present x.x