Happy 4th bird-day, Rappy!

Today is Raptor's 4th birthday!!  As with Mika's birthday earlier this month, there wasn't a huge celebration (since every day is their birthday in this house).  We showered Rappy with a lot of attention and all his favorite treats.  I even gave him an extra organic almond, since he loves those SO much! I tried getting more pictures of him but he is so much harder to photograph than Mika.  Raptor rarely stays still for photos.  This was the best birthday shot I could get - the rest were blurry or his face was away from the camera.  >_<

What a great birthday surprise that the medium Java stand I ordered from My Safe Bird Store as Mika and Raptor's combination birthday gift arrived TODAY rather than the 22nd like scheduled.  As usual, there was a bag of TREATS for the hoomans of the house from Kathie (thank you for feeding my fat!! LOL).  We really don't have room for another playgym where we are right now so I have it tucked away in my old bedroom at my parents house until we get to the house early next year.  ;)  

I also ordered a medium ScooterZ tent for him in a pretty shade of green.  Mika absolutely loves sleep tents but Raptor has always been weary of big fabric things and preferred to sleep on a platform perch.  I thought I'd give it another go and try a tent again just because.  I really would love for him to tuck himself into a tent to sleep.  Mika is always so warm and cozy in his.  I want Rappy to be warm and cozy at sleep time too!

Happy birthday, our stubborn, bitey, aggressive, bundle of fierceness!  Mommy loves you very much...  even though you just tolerate me.  ;)

Oops... I've been slacking!

It's been over a month since my last post!  >_<  I do have an excuse, though...  summer ended and I went back to work during the last week of July.  And then August is a very hectic and busy time because the beginning of the school year is ALWAYS hectic and stressful.  I have been taking pics, but just posting them on Instagram (@BirdsFTW).  Once things calm down I'll post more often.

Until then, here are some pictures of the boys:

So the boys birthdays are coming up next month.  Mika will be 11 and Raptor will be four.  Normally, I'll have bought their birthday gifts months and months in advance.  This is the first time I haven't bought anything...  yet.  I guess I'm on the fence because I buy things for the boys CONSTANTLY so they're never in need (or want) of anything.  They still have tons of toys and things they've never seen yet, just stored away waiting for their turn in the cage rotation.  

Then there's the big - BIG - purchase that will be happening at the end of the year or early next year.  Part of me feels that it's such a huge purchase that it should be their birthday and Christmas gift combined.  The bf thinks it should be their birthday and Christmas gifts combined for the next 15 years.  :P  Can't blame him, though!    

It's not like I'm not going to celebrate their birthdays, because we will, but I'm feeling a little weird about not having something to GIVE them on their day.  Something that came to mind was maybe giving them the Pet Products By Nature fleece wood coin swings I was saving for next year to put in their new cages?  I got one for each of them.  Yeah...  I just may do that.

After all is said and done I guess I shouldn't stress too much over it.  After all, everyone who knows me knows the boys get new things nearly every month.  LOL 

Surprise!!

I had received a package from Things for Wings a week ago.  I had bought another fantastic willow coin swing (thanks to Danita's generosity in letting the swing go!), so I could have one for each of my boys.  When I opened the box, I found a surprise in there!  There was a bag full of beautiful toys, along with a cryptic note from the gifter.  Come to find out, the gift was from Peggy (Sadieladie1994 on Avian Avenue).  It was a totally unexpected gift and so sweet of her!  

At the time, I had to thank Peggy in private because Danita wanted to hold a guessing game as to what theme her new toy collection is, and the toys I received were part of that new collection.  Now that the guessing game is over, she said I can post the pics of these super cute "Island Hopping" toys!  :D  I'm not sure what these toys are named, but they should all be named "Fun & Fabulous"!  Hehe.

The toys are so cute I really didn't want to give it to the birds, but I caved in and gave them ONE. LOL  I put the toy on the Java tree in the living room and shoved Nutriberries into the wicker ball to entice them.  I let Raptor go at it first.  He immediately started shredding feverishly to get to the treats.  He also took a few chunks out of the balsa blocks.  When he was done, there was about half the wicker ball left - ideal for my non-chewer/forager, Mika.  I put more Nutriberries in the half-destroyed wicker ball and Mika went to town!  I was quite surprised!  

This toy was a HUGE success!  As of today, there is nothing left of the toy except for a little bit of wicker and raffia.  Raptor has destroyed the rest of the balsa and yucca pieces.  Thank you, Peggy, for such a generous gift and thank you, Danita, for always coming out with adorable new toy collections!!  :)

Watermelon!

I love watermelon.  I've loved it since I was a little girl that would eat it all the way through to the rind so that there was only greenish white left.  Now that I'm grown, I don't go as far as to eat all the way down to the rind but I still can eat it every single day.  If allowed, I can go through a watermelon in a day.  I am currently on my fourth, and largest, watermelon in a week and a half's span! LOL  Anyway, my friend, Natacha, wanted to know just how big this HUGE watermelon is and suggested I take pictures with my birds on them for size reference.  

Both my camera and cell phone camera weren't on my side today.  Probably my fault for choosing the couch which reflected so much light.  The cameras kept focusing on the watermelon rather than the birds.  My fault for STILL not having read the manual to my camera.  None of the pictures came out well.  :(  Oh well.  These are the best two shots I got.  

Mika weighs 45g and Raptor weighs 110g.  The watermelon is 35lbs, measuring 20" in length and 9" in diameter.  O_O

Wet birdies!

This afternoon I showered with Raptor, then Mika.  Since I was going to have both birds wet, I figured it'd be a great time to take wet bird pics!  Well, that didn't completely work out according to plan.  I put Raptor on the playgym in the office for less than FIVE minutes while I finished my shower with Mika and by the time we came out Raptor was almost completely dry!  >_<  The only wet part left was his head and back of his neck.  Mika, though, is still wet as I type.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised...  whenever Mika bathes, he gets SOAKED.  He'll get soaked all the way down to his skin, and he'll stay wet for quite a while as he dries off.  Maybe it's because Mika's feathers are just so incredibly soft and floofy?  Raptor, on the other hand, has an oily sheen to his wings and tail feathers.  Whenever he bathes, his face and tummy will get wet but water just beads right off of his wings/tail.

Anyway, the wet bird pics of Mika came out really well - he looks like a punk rocker with his head feathers sticking up!  Hehehe!

With Raptor's wet bird pics, you can see that it's mainly his head that is still wet.  I had a REALLY hard time getting good pictures because he kept moving back and forth all over the tree, rubbing his beak all over the place.  Such a bummer because I had him in the water for a good 10 minutes!

Pics from the day before.

I had other things going on so I didn't get to post these pictures the same day I took them. 

Every time I wash the dishes, I have to put Mika away (and Raptor if the bf isn't home to watch him) because he will get all up in my business, trying to bathe in the running water.  With all the suds flying around, I'm not willing to risk anything so he and Raptor had to occupy themselves in their cages while I got my cleaning on!

I'm so cute!

Looking up at mommy.

Look at that face! *melt*

Time for a nap (see him gripping the left chain).

One of my favorite hang out spots.

Wanna play a game, mommy?

It's called hide-and-seek.  Now count to 10.

She'll never find me behind this toy...

Rats!  She found me!

You're not as bad at this game as I thought you'd be.  :P

Rappy can be so cute!

Raptor may be temperamental and aggressive, but he can also be oh-so-cute.

I rarely get good in-cage shots of Raptor because the office, where his cage is, doesn't have as much natural light flowing in as the bedroom does (where Mika's cage is).  Even when he's on the Java stand, right next to the window, the light still isn't that great because of the next stack of condos blocking the sun.  Today we had to move his cage into the bedroom temporarily for a few days while we do stuff in the office, so that meant nice lighting! :D 

He spent a good amount of time just hanging out on his boing, looking fluffed up and baby-ish!!

After his nap, he spent quite a while playing with his Grey Feather Toys MegaFone.  I really enjoyed watching him play with the chain and washers - he was really going at it!  Unfortunately, most of the pictures came out very blurry because he was moving around so much. 
 

So cute.  :)

Pinelisious!

I took some pictures of Raptor with his new toy today.  The Pinelisious is my favorite of the toys I ordered from Birds Favorites Toys.  I was going to wait until next toy rotation to put all the toys in his cage, but I just couldn't wait with this one.  Hehe.  So I put it on the Java stand in the office.  Raptor is chipping and nibbling away at the toy as I type!  :D

Seeing how nice it looks on the playgym, it makes me wish I had ordered multiples...  >_<

Oooooh...  what's that new thing down there??

It looks delightful!

Let me take a little nibble here...

A bigger nibble there...

Time to chomp!!

I love chipping pine into toothpicks all over the carpet for mommy to vacuum!

Thanks, mom!  This new toy is awesome!!