Name change

We picked a new name for Kika: Stella. It maintains two syllables, ends in an "a" and reminds me of my favorite plainchant, "Ave Maris Stella" which I can sing to her. (If you want to hear it, here is a copy on youtube).

Here she is, enjoying peas we got from our CSA last week.
While all the parrots enjoyed the peas, they seemed to be a particular favorite of the greys. Max:Last night, Thomas was trying to get a picture of Beeps playing with one of the new toys on the playstand. But every time he'd aim the camera at Beeps, he's stop playing with his toys and start making threatening postures towards the camera, like here.

Stephanie may be right, in that it's his puffy cheeks that make him so adorable to me. I was looking at my parrots last night, and his do seem more pronounced than those of anyone else.

In the end, Thomas crouched behind our counter and used the zoom to get this picture. But once Beeps heard the "click," the game was up, so this is the best we were able to get. I'm just amazed at how flexible they are -- his right foot is so high up on the toy!

Over the weekend, we made zucchini bread with vegetables from our CSA (I guess we're not making entirely healthy foods with everything!) I cut a few pieces for us for dessert, and of course Max was right there, helping herself.

This picture didn't turn out the best, but I wanted to include it because her eyes are pinned to a pretty great degree. She loves food like this!And then a couple of pictures from this morning. I had washed my daily apple and set it on the counter while I finished the rest of my breakfast. Max will not eat apples. I've tried daily for years to offer her some, but I am rebuffed. Once she ate a small piece and I had hope that we'd turned the corner, but that was months ago now, and there has been no further apple interest.

Anyway, this morning she was tonguing (is that even a word?) my apple, just like she had the strawberries! I had never noticed this before. After I cut up the apple, I offered her some, but she was still not interested.She noticed me taking pictures of her (see above), and started looking at me quizzically. There was something about her posture that made me include this picture on the blog. It seems to capture her inquisitive personality!