I've just joined -- but I can already see that Maggie is right! I would love to see some regular participation on this board....to participate in an on-line community of mixed-species families.
My husband is a pilot and I am a Spanish teacher. We have four human children (now ages 20, 19, 16, and 15), and several non-human family members (two dogs, two cats, and - admittedly our best buds, two parrots..., Munya, a 5-year-old blue-front Amazon, and Sam, a year-and-a-half year old Congo African Grey). Sam goes to school with me daily, which makes my room a favorite stopping point of K-5 students. The children are teaching him Spanish. Sam is handled by dozens of students daily....and thoroughly enjoys the attention! He began vocalizing at a few months, and said his first intelligible words at about 10 months (Hola, Hi and Hello). In the last couple of months he has begun talking quite a bit. At this point, while his goal is clear (attention), his use of human language is not always contextually appropriate ("Good night night" in the middle of the morning at times when he is not trying to rest, for example.)
Sam has a health issue (specifically, his sinuses don't drain properly). We have the world's best Avian vet - who tried a relatively new procedure of doing surgery and inserting (temporary) catheters that were supposed to help widen the drainage tubes. The six-week period with the plastic tubes was uncomfortable for Sam, and, unfortunately, the surgery doesn't appear to have corrected the problem. I still have to suction his sinuses (typically a couple/few times daily). We haven't given up on finding a solution ... after all, he has several decades ahead of him and it would be nice to take the suctioning-process out of our relationship. In the meantime, if anyone out there has experience with this, I'd be curious to know whether you've found a way to "make it all better".
SO - Hello everyone. I'm glad to be here. And I look forward to meeting you!
Karen