a pair of keets

We found our Apple! This fine looking young fella (well, we hope he's a fella, anyway, we actually won't know for sure for another 8 months!) was sitting in a cage full of cuties at our local pet shop -- after driving all over creation looking at parakeets and finding them less than suitable, this guy seems to fit the bill nicely for us. He's young (a little under 4 months of age), robust, playful, and handsome. I told J that he could name him anything he wanted to (and in fact, Zoo Boy tried to convince him to name him "Keet" instead), but he stuck with Apple -- and honestly, I think it's a pretty good name!

Pear is instantly in love, but taking the experts' advice, we'll keep them seperated for a week so that they get used to each other from a distance before allowing them to share a cage. So the boys' room currently looks more like an aviary than a bedroom!

As for the kids, they are thrilled to have our "pair of keets" complete. I have secret plans to get a larger parrot for Zoo Boy in the spring, to help encourage him to practice his speech therapy lessons (reasoning that if he's teaching a bird how to talk, he'll be motivate work on his articulation!), but these little guys will give us a feeling for how birds fit into our lives. So far, we're all pretty pleased at the situation. I've long had a passion for birds myself, and am thrilled that the boys, especially Zoo Boy, seem to be following in those footsteps.