Out of the mouths of birds....

04.21.09    I tell Gabby it's going to rain, and she said, "Outside water?"  I must admit, I was rather impressed with her reply!

08.17.06    I hear Gabby imitating a Loon's call in the next room, so I said, "COOL!!".  Gabby says, "That was a GOOD GIRL, get a treat!"

08.17.06    Since Gabby loves her fish so much, Jason has told her a couple of times when he says goodbye that he has to go to his house and feed the fish.  Today he said goodbye to her and she said, "Bye-bye, gotta go feed the fishes?"

08.09.06    Gabby YELLS: "DADDY!!  FLY!  Go on!"  I said, "I  can't FLY!"  Gabby: (Laughs)

06.15.06    Gabby suddenly blurts out: "I'm so pretty!!"  (I have days like that too)

06.15.06    Gabby hears the Insurance Adjuster on  the roof checking storm damage.  She jumps to attention and says, "Who's out there?!  Is that the Turtle Dove???"

11.18.05    Gabby (Fake cough-cough-cough-cough...). I say, "Baby birdie!  Are you okay?"  Gabby says, "Can I get some Apple Juice?"  (She LOVES her Apple Cider!!!!)

10.12.05    Gabby: "I gotta go bye-bye -- be a GOOD Daddy, I gotta go to work!"

09.07.05    Has started saying, "I'm HOME!!" when I take her back to her cage.

06.20.05    Gabby: "I want grape juice."  As I'm bringing her the requested bowl of juice, she says, "What's in your bowl?"  I said, "Grape Juice!!"  She said, "Want some water?  (pees) There ya go!"

04.01.05    Gabby tries to fly over to my hand (I was only about 3' away).  Now... you have to understand that landings scare her, and she'd rather keep flying than to attempt a landing.  So she chickened out at the last minute, turned, and flew across the house, landing next to the wall/doorway.  I ran in and picked her up, and she said, "WHEEEEEEEW!!!!!" as if, "Did you see THAT?"

02.24.05    While she was doing bird calls, I hear her cheerfully blurt out, "HI!!!!!  I'm a TURTLE Dove!!"

01.26.05    I got a bunch of new fish for the aquarium, and told Gabby I got them for her.  I showed them to her while they were in the bag, and we put them in the tank together.  Two days later she starts saying, "Wanna go see fishes?"  She loves them.  PS:  The first week she called the fish "shish" or "shishes"

12.29.04    Gabby rips off a loud belch... I said, "GABBY!  Was that YOU?!?!"  Gabby replies, "Was that the owl?"

10.18.04    I took Gabby outside to hear the (Great Horned) owl sitting in a tree in my back yard.  The next morning she kept saying, "Owl"  and she learned the hoot.

09.30.04    Quietly sitting her her cage, I suddenly hear her yell very sternly, "I'M GONNA GET YOUR BUTT, BIRDIE!!!!!!!!!!" 

08.18.04    Gabby had been asking for grapes repeatedly, and I was kind of tuning her out.  She did something, then said, “Wow, what a good girl!!”  I said, “Yes, you sure are!”  She goes, “So go get some grapes!!”  I said, “Do you want me to go get you some grapes?  Okay!!”  She said, “REAL QUICK!” 

03.10.04    Gabby's playing in her cage when I hear, "OUCH, SH*T!"  (Must have heard it from the neighbors?!)

03.10.04    I told her I was going to throw out her yogurt if she didn't want it (She hadn't touched it all morning). She just sits there looking at it, so I take it to the kitchen & dump it. Then I hear, "Ah, crap!"

01.02.04:  I was eating some peanuts.  Gabby said, "What you got?  Are you hungry?"  I said, "Yes, I'm hungry!"  Gabby said, "Quiet! (and laughs)"

12.31.03:  Gabby's birthday (New Years Eve).  Someone brings her a present, an awesome Scooby Doo Christmas ornament (She LOVES Scooby Doo).  I showed it to Gabby and said, "Isn't that cool?"  She said, "That's crap."

10.12.03:  After her shower, I usually fly Gabby around the house to shake her wings dry.  I didn't this morning, and just put her on her tree.  She said, "I want to dry off."  She'd never said that before!

10.09.03:  Gabby bites Jason, so he takes her to her cage to be by herself as a "punishment".  As he walks out of the room, she says, "I'm sorry - are you okay?  I'm a good girl, I'm sorry!"  We couldn't help but laugh, it was SO CUTE!

08.16.03:  Gabby has an 'accident' on my shoulder, so I take her back to her bedroom.  A few minutes later I hear, "I want to go see Daddy.  Come here, NO potties!"

05.06.03:  Gabby: "What do you want!?!?"    Jason: "I don't know, what do YOU want?"   Gabby: "What you got?"

04.12.03:  Sitting by the window, Gabby says, "Wanna go outside, Gabby go to work"  (She'd never said 'go to work' before)

03.28.03: I have been giving Gabby treats for doing tricks & singing songs.  She whistled Jingle Bells, and I said, "WOW!"  Gabby said, "YEAH, GOOD GIRL!  Get an olive!"

01.03.03:  Gabby kept saying "Jingle Bells", so I played it for her on the piano.  When I was done, she said, "Was that Jingle Bells?"  (Tough audience!)

12.06.02:  I told Gabby, "It's time to feed the fish!"  She said, "Oh cool, you gonna fix some popcorn?  Huh?"  (She's always looking for ANY excuse to pop some popcorn!)

09.26.02:  Gabby was playing in the bedroom, and peed on the floor.  I said, "Gabby!  You tell Daddy when you have to go potty!  You’re going back to your cage!”  She ran & ran from me.  I caught her and put her on her cage door.  As I was walking out of the room she says, “Okay, Gotta go potty, come here.”

09.24.02:  I sit down to dinner – Gabby has all the same foods as me except corn on the cob.  She started flapping her wings and acting very upset.  I said, “What is it you want?”  I shouldn’t have asked – she flew down into my plate, going after the corn.

09.21.02:  Learns a new word, "Peanuts" - only she doesn't pronounce the "t" (OH NO!!).  Says, “More pea-nus, yummy, yummy peanus”.  A week later she learned to say "Yummy PeanuTs"

05.02.02:  At 6:20AM this morning, Gabby learned to imitate my alarm clock.  Until I fully woke up, I kept hitting snooze and wondered why it wouldn't stop!

04.28.02:  I fell asleep on the sofa when I heard "RIP, RIP, RIP" and thought to myself, "That doesn't sound like any of her toys... It wasn't.  She was stripping wallpaper.  (Picture)  Oh well, I hated it too.

03.13.02:   On her way to take her shower, Gabby suddenly changes her mind and tries to fly away - straight into the toilet.

06.17.01:  Gabby asks for something specific to eat for the first time.  She said, "Want popcorn".  Of course, she got it.

03.31.01:  Gabby said her first official learned sentence, and I caught it on tape when she said it.  I was working on this web page, and she turned to me and said, "What'cha doin'?".  The next morning, she asks that question over and over.  With practice, it now sounds like: "What'cha doin?"

Feb 2001:  Gabby makes her first attempts at normal speech (14 months).  You can tell she has something on her mind & is trying to tell you, but only she knows what she's saying.  (See the bottom of the TALKING page to hear her first attempts at talking)

Jan 2001:  Gabby says her first word, "Hello", in a 'normal' speaking voice.  It's very deep & gravely, but she melted my heart when I walked in the door from work & she said "Helloooooo!" 

12.31.00:  Gabby's 1st birthday!  We have a big party, complete with a cake (Red Velvet, of course).  While everyone sings "Happy Birthday", Gabby takes a potty break on poor old Dad.

04.09.00: Gabby comes home to live with me.  She's already saying "Hello" every day in baby bird talk.

12.31.99: Gabby hatches & is ready to ring in the new millennium -- all in one day!!