~ goin' to the birds...

Meet Peri and George.

Jonathan and I had parakeets in the early years of our marriage, and sadly, the last one expired shortly before the boys were born. We thought birds would be a fun and enriching Christmas gift for the kids, especially since they had become increasingly enamored with the parakeets where we buy our dog food. 

So we got them these little birdies. It was the best gift at Christmas! 

(and they already knew we weren't going to get them a Wii or any video games so this made for a great surprise.)

I think we had George and Mary on the brain because we had just watched "It's A Wonderful Life," so we named them George and Peri... short for Periwinkle, which is her color exactly (and happens to be my favorite color as well). Not terribly creative, but it suits them.

Fortunately they adore each other, we adore them, and while I can't use the word "adore" again, they are certainly warming up to the kids. Almost every day the kids ask to take them out of the cage. They are very sweet and gentle with the birds, and it's interesting to watch them learn how they need to move around the birds so as not to scare them.

This is George gently nibbling on Calvin's ear while Peri watches.

The first time Calvin had both birds on his shoulders he looked at me and said in his best Pirate voice,

"AARRRR!"

Caleb with Peri and George.

Crazy bird kids!

Kizi with George and Peri.

Their cage sits on the kids' craft table in the sunroom, just to the right of my desk. And this video clip is a short sample of the sweet serenading I get to hear often throughout the day. George especially does this really cute trillling sort of warble. I'll try to also get some video of them preening each other-- my fav. It's so cute how they take turns ever so gently nibbling the feathers around the other's face and neck. They seem to really love each other.