Our Journey: Birds and Rockstars

Since Anna was about 7, she has been begging for a bird. I guess at some point I told her, "When you're in eighth grade you can get a bird," of course, assuming that she would forget and move on. Through the years, she never forgot and would mention it every now and then. She just finished sixth grade and WOW did the bird talk ever increase. She kept reminding us of her exceptional grades and GPA and how she "deserves" it since she worked so hard and did so well in school. Actually, she is the most mature and responsible 12 year-old I've ever known so, it didn't take much for her to convince me that she could handle the responsibility. She was quite the negotiator and some how finagled an entire year off of the deal, which included being able to fund all of it on her own. Immediately she started collecting report card money, recycling with her Lolo, and selling lemons (from her Lolo and Lola's lemon tree) door to door.

When we went to go get "a" bird, we some how ended up with two! The bird guy assured us that birds were happier in pairs. Well, we want happy birds, don't we? So, here are the two newest members of the family: Pucker and Shadow. Shadow (the blue one) is as sweet, gentle, and mellow as can be. He is definitely the "giver" in the relationship, always scooting over to groom his cage mate and snuggle. Pucker, on the other hand, is quite feisty! He's more difficult to handle and enjoys being the leader in the cage.

We've had the birds for a few days now and Anna is being a perfect mama to them. Having birds is every bit as fun as she expected, and I think a little more work than she expected, but she's doing great! It's very sweet to listen to them chirp, and thankfully Ryan seems to be doing OK with his allergies and asthma so far!

Ryan enjoys going to see the birds (he sponsored and named Shadow). It's a bit of an issue at the moment since the birds are in Anna's room and she's ~~a control freak~~ very particular about the birds. But we're working on it!