All of the recent spoiling has gone straight to Miss Sydney's head! She's starting to think that she's the boss around here!

It started this morning when my dad needed me to come give his motorcycle a jump start. I hadn't yet fed the birds--I hadn't even uncovered them yet. So, I uncovered them all and then started to leave without giving them their breakfast. Mind you, they all had food in their cages; Digby and Lenore had some pellets, Sydney had some seeds, and Irwin had his pellet/seed mix. Just as I was walking out the door, Sydney started chirping up a storm. She was not happy that I was leaving without giving her her mash. I assured her that I'd be back in about an hour, but she was still not happy.

All day long she's been loud and demanding. She demanded to be let out of her cage while I got breakfast ready. She wanted the TV on when it was too quiet in the house (yes, I do know that's what she wanted--she is a very easy bird to read). This evening, my mom told me that Sydney was very loud while I was gone at a Christmas party.

I got home a little after 10 PM and Sydney was carrying on because nobody gave her her bedtime seed yet. Before I realized this, though, I asked her if she was ready for bed. She did not go to her sleep perch when I asked, so that was a "no." That was when I realized that I didn't give her seed before I left. So I gave her a bit of seed, fed the fish, put Irwin to bed, got a drink, cleaned up the kitchen some, and then went back to Sydney.

She was at her food dish still, eating her seed. "Syd, are you ready for bed?" I asked her. She looked up from her food and chirped at me. I asked her again, and again she chirped at me. They were quiet little chirps, so I knew she was tired. I went ahead and covered her cage, and then she really started being loud, as if yelling at me for covering her when she didn't want to be covered. Well, excuse me, Sydney, for enforcing your normal bedtime!

Usually Sydney is ready for bed before I ask her. If any of the birds argue with me at bedtime, it's Digby. She'd stay up all night if I let her. I think Syd woke up on the wrong side of the, er, perch this morning.

Lenore flew for the first time yesterday!

When I got him almost a year ago, his wings were already clipped, and he was never fledged. His clip was very severe, and he didn't know how to land properly. As a result, his landings were crashes, and he broke all of his tail feathers.

A few months ago, he finally got all of his flight feathers in, but he still couldn't fly. He was able to glide down much, much better, but he wasn't getting any lift. Sometimes he'd get a little lift when he first took off, but no more than a couple of feet. And sometimes he'd fly like a helicopter, up a little bit, and then down in a circle. It made me really worry and I wondered if he'd ever figure it out. It made me sad when Digby would fly across the room and he'd want to follow her, but he knew he couldn't. The past couple of weeks, I've been working with him more, trying to build up his muscles, but I wasn't seeing any improvement.

But yesterday morning I brought him upstairs with me to get the birds' breakfast ready, and I sat down on the couch in the living room to wait for their mash to cool enough to give it to them. While I was sitting on the couch, Lenore was happily sitting on my hand while I gave him scritches, and then Sydney started making a fuss. All of the sudden, Lenore took off and up. I thought he'd land on the coffee table right in front of the couch or on the floor in front of the table, but he didn't. He flew all the way to Sydney's cage! It was about 15 feet, and he flew up about four or five feet. I was so happy!

Then, Sydney started showing off her toys, and when he didn't respond how she wanted him to, she got mad at him. So he flew off her cage and this time went all the way through the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen, and landed on the far end of the kitchen on the stove (which was NOT on). This second flight was at least twice as long as his first flight, and required him to go around a turn.

I'm so proud of my little boy. Now, if only his tail feathers would regrow.

The Avian Avenue Sidewalk Sale was last weekend. I bought stuff. I ordered from My Safe Bird Store (MSBS) and from Things for Wings (T4W). My MSBS order was small, just a couple of essential things and a few extra little things. My T4W order was my first from there, all toys, and I was very excited about it.

Both of my orders came yesterday. I was expecting the MSBS order, but I was not expecting the T4W order so soon, as the store owner, Danita, gave a warning that orders would probably take a while to be fill orders. Because the Avian Avenue Secret Santa exchange is also going on right now, and Danita had said she got all the Secret Santa things done, I though maybe that's what was in the box. When I opened the box, though, it was both my order and something from my Secret Santa!

I opened both boxes as soon as I could, and I didn't bother even trying to wait until Christmas to open my Secret Santa present.

From My Safe Bird Store, I got food (TOPs Crumplets), a new food dish for Sydney (one that she can't throw on the floor), a new skewer for Digby and Lenore since theirs went AWOL, some finger traps, vine balls, and banana leaf bundles (Lenore's favorite!). The order also came with some freebies--one finger trap toy filled with shredded paper for each bird, and a soap and lotion sample from Quaking Canopy.

From Things for Wings, I got two Busy Boxes, a watermelon platform perch, a Party Explosion, a Pipsqueak, two Simple Foragers, and a Mini Gypsy.

Finally, from my Secret Santa, I got all of this:

And this clue:

From that clue (a single lovebird that isn't very good at playing), I narrowed it down to three people who were participating in Secret Santa that just had one lovebird. I then was able to eliminate one of them because she had said she was SS to somebody on another continent. So that left me with two. I was pretty sure I had seen pictures of one of those lovebirds playing, so I guessed the other one. And I was wrong!

It turns out that my secret Santa is Natacha, who has the blog Just Poifect. I had no idea that cute little Piper wasn't into toys. I was almost certain I had seen pictures of him playing, but I guess not. (Thank you again!)

With the addition of the stuff Santa Natacha sent us, the birds ended up getting pretty spoiled.

Irwin's Loot

Digby and Lenore's Loot

Sydney's Loot

I put some of the new toys in each cage today. Sydney hasn't touched her toys, though she showed no fear of her new food dish, Irwin has chewed on the cords his toys are strung on, and Digby and Lenore got right to work on one of the toys Natacha sent them--pics coming soon! (What are those, by the way? They're like the Mini Gypsy I ordered Sydney, but different colors. Is that what they are?)