Lou & Bijou's Nightly Routine

Pets like their routines, and birds are no exception to this.  Lou (our Budgie) and Bijou (our Lovebird) have this routine:
When I come home from work, the heat downstairs has been turned on for a while to warm it up (they spend most of their days upstairs, where we have the heat on).  Everyone greets me at the door, hubby, Lou & Bijou.  After greeting them all back, Lou & Bij decide whether they want to be on our shoulders or run and play tag on the kitchen & family room floor.

Eventually they always opt for the tag-you're-it game.  Bijou is usually the front runner, and typical younger-child fashion, Lou is the "wait for me, I wanna come too!" kind of follower.  We prepare our dinner with them underfoot and have become accustomed to watching out for them.  Sometimes when it gets too distracting, they are put on a towel over the back of a kitchen chair and perch there to supervise.

I tried to get them to be still long enough to grab a picture

Showing the different blues on their backs.

I shot these 2 pictures really quickly with my iPhone, so they are not the best.  But I was trying to capture how differently they are colored, even though they are both blue.

They are both the same size, weighing about 50 grams each.  But you can see that they have very different body shapes.  Hmmm, people do too!

Lou is a vibrant teal & aqua with black & white accents.  Bij has a mix of gray-blues, some violet and a peach forehead.



Wow, my floor looks dirty!  Actually the linoleum is over 20 years old and needs to be replaced.  It's seen lots of wear & tear that children can do to a kitchen LOL.  It's clean, just lots of marks on it!

They like to worry shoelaces, working on the little plastic coating on the ends.  Bijou had claimed Hubby's shoe and wouldn't let Lou get on it.  She had been running back & forth, from side to side trying to join him & he wouldn't let her play.

So I picked her up and showed her that Daddy had two shoes.  She thought that was pretty cool and got busy with her own set of laces.  Bijou of course, did not play anymore, just spent all of his time watching her to make sure she stayed put.  Pfft!

Full tummy and sleepy.

After they eat their dinner (which they refuse to do until the requisite amount of playing tag) they each retreat to specific spots. Bijou picks me or my husband and has some snuggle time.  Lou perches up high on a dried grapevine branch outside of the play cage.  She faces us and sits, preening, dozing and sometimes singing the prettiest collection of sleepy songs and little chirps.
Here's Bijou on my chest while I'm in the recliner.  He flattens out just like a little hampster or mouse, and gets a nice petting.  I usually hum to him.  Then by 8:00 or 8:30 they are ready to go to bed for the night.

That's our little family at the moment!