Two new sounds

Trixie has already learned her first new sound, a kiss, which she either picked up from Ringo or me or maybe a combination. It's so cute the way she does it with her little high POP sound. And Ringo, who for some reason sits next to her mirror and pecks it repeatedly at bedtime (I can't decide whether that's her signal to me that she's in for the night, or she's protesting that she's in for the night), has now learned to make that sound in her throat. It took me a while to figure out what she was doing because she just debuted it this evening. What IS that? She did it over and over, among her garbled talking and her whistling, and I finally recognized it. And Benjy doesn't have a new sound, but has developed a new and annoying -- for his roommates -- behavior. I put him in his cage, cover him up and turn off the light, and he starts singing and chirping and squawking like mad, and continues doing this for quite a while after he's supposed to be in bed. He's so loud I can hear him over the TV in the living room all the way across the house, and in Ringo and Trix's room when I'm in there trying to convince them to go to bed. Trixie is ready to go to bed any time I tell her it's time, but Ringo is a perpetual motion machine and is never ready for bed. What happened to the truism that if it's dark and they're covered, a bird shuts up and goes to sleep?

I did the critters' Christmas shopping online tonight, too. The little girls (Ringo and Trixie) are getting new toys. The parrots' room is getting a second boing because Clyde won't share the one they've got with anybody but Benjy. If anyone else lands on it, he scrambles to chase them off, even if he's sitting on me. He can't guard TWO boings, so I figured a second one would give Johnny and Freddie and Jade a boing to sit on. Jade doesn't care that much, but the boys like the boing and almost never get to use it. They're also getting a big supply of millet, and Trixie loves millet, so she'll share that. And the dogs are getting new toys. Jack destroys any toy he touches in nothing flat, so he needs a regular supply. LOL