Birdie Beauty Shop Day

"Mom, I'm so glad we got a bird.", RocketMan said with is big brown lovey eyes.

Yep, it is official. Apollo has us wrapped around his little feathered wing tips.

This explains why I was standing in the plumbing aisle of Home Depot for an hour on Saturday. Did you see us? I was the woman with the three children trying to explain to the dumbfounded plumbing department employee how many pieces of PVC I needed, and which sizes I needed him to cut. Let's see... 10 four inch pieces, 8 six inch pieces, 4 two inch pieces, etc.

Finally he said, "Mamm, what exactly are we making with all these little pieces you are having me cut?"

"Oh, a parrot playground", I replied with wavering confidence.

The plumbing man smiled at me with vague concern about my mental stability as my kids swirled around him. Finally he loaded up all the myriad of connectors I needed and sent us on our way with two extra 10 foot PVC pipes "just in case". I gave one to RocketMan to carry and one to BirdMan to carry.

That was a mistake.

"BOYS! Those are NOT lances!", I said in my stern mommy voice as they galloped through the lumber aisle.

They stopped trying to spear each other and instead held them up as high in the air as they could. Ten feet of half inch PVC pipe is very, very bendy. All three were non-stop giggles as the other customers were taking great care to steer as far away from my little traveling acrobats as possible.

Once we got home we put together Apollo's big birdie playground that now sits in the schoolroom. That's the picture you see. The new playground has perches and two toy hangers. We wrapped the sections of PVC in twine so the bird could get a good grip with his feet. Apollo seems to really enjoy all the things to chew on and hang on!

While we were out, we had also stopped by Walmart to buy a kitty litter pan for our bird. Why a kitty litter pan? Well, using the PVC, we built a perch stand with a toy holder. The contraption sits inside the litter pan and we can carry Apollo from room to room without worrying about the back end of the bird depositing any presents on the carpet. And since the perch is made from PVC and the kitty pan is plastic, it is very easy to clean. Those two facts gave me an idea.

Conures are real water babies and Apollo tries to leap into any water he sees, including his water bowl. He then shakes his feathers like a dog and water goes EVERYWHERE! Cleaning a bird shouldn't mean cleaning all the kitchen counters, kitchen floor and kitchen cabinets at the same time. That's when I thought, hey... I need a shower... and Apollo likes showers.... hmmmmmm.

I'm happy to say that Apollo's Kitty Litter Pan Perch fits perfectly on the bench in our shower stall! He chirped and squawked and spread out his wings while I sprayed water into the air and let it fall down on his body. He shook to his heart's delight while I finished washing my hair. He kept tilting his head and looking at me intently. I don't think he recognized me without clothes and a wet head. However, the strange looking naked woman with the familiar voice didn't seem to traumatize him too much. (I did keep one eye open in case he decided to fly to me and land with those strong hooked toes onto a miscellaneous body part.)

After I towelled off, I turned on the hair dryer and blow dried his feathers. He seemed to really like that.

Birdie Beauty Shop Day... Check!