I hope I'm doing all the right this thus far

Noise in the morning is very normal for just about any bird. More specifically, your very social bird has been apart from you, missed your company and calls out for contact. If you're not ready for it first thing in the morning, perhaps you can keep him covered for a bit longer, but expect him to greet you for a while whenever you do get him up.

He will adapt to your schedule. Just keep giving him focused attention when you are home. Many of us leave a radio or TV on when our birds are home alone. I can't swear that mine pay any attention to it after the first few minutes, though.

Learning to replicate human speech is not easy, and he may be practicing. Many "speaking" birds never do. It can be hard to spark an interest if they didn't start very early. Keep talking to him clearly and distinctly, and reward him when he seems to be trying.

Is there any reason you can't take your earrings off when he is on your shoulder? You can train him to leave them alone, but sometimes the best option is to remove the opportunity to misbehave. If he is sitting on your shoulder for an hour, that is going to be a pretty big temptation. I'd recommend that you spend time with him doing training in place of some of the shoulder sitting. 

Our QP, Cupcake, doesn't make much noise in the morning, but that seems to be pretty abnormal. Many people report that their parrots make noise upon waking in the morning. If it isn't too excessive, I would just accept it as normal.

Our schedule is very erratic, and Cupcake really doesn't know when we will be coming or going. She is very tolerant of our schedule, and while she does sometimes complain when she picks up on clues that we will be leaving soon, in general she is very happy to see us and relatively okay when we leave. As long as you have good quality time with Pete every day, he will adapt to your schedule. One suggestion I have is to enthusiastically greet Pete immediately upon arrival, and always give an clear goodbye when you leave. Cupcake *really* appreciates the enthusiasm we put into greeting her when we return home.

We have been leaving Mozart on both when we leave and also in the background when we are at home, and it has a clear, immediate effect on her mood in a positive way.

I agree, unless you want to lose a diamond earring, take them out. You can try to train him not to play with them, but it will not be easy, as that is a huge temptation I have two piercing-style earrings that never come out, and Cupcake yanks on them and plays with them all the time. I can't imagine getting her to stop. Luckily it does not bother me at all.