"More Alex"

Alex surprises me everyday with his intellegience.
He is always coming up with some new behavior or phrase that catches me unaware.
A few nights ago, we were sitting on the couch, watching T.V. after dinner. Alex was perched on my shoulder, preening my hair (a new behavior for him). Tish was sitting on the other end of the couch. Alex climbed off my shoulder onto the back of the couch and made his way toward Tish. She is a little nervous around him (he is a notorious biter) so she moved forward a little bit, out of his reach. She was talking to him, however and she said, "Gimme a kiss!" Expecting his reply to be his usual smooching sound. Alex surprised us all by replying , "Come here!"
Tonight, I decided to offer him a new treat. I know that he loves fresh strawberries. He will pick all the seeds off, eating them one by one before finally nibbling on the fruit itself. Tonight, I offered him a piece of pomgranate. Alex took one look at it and promptly asked, "What's that?" Of course once he tried it, he loved it. I knew he would.
This morning, he woke up with Jerry, and while Jerry was ironing his clothes for the day, Alex walked over to him and waited to be picked up and placed on his play gym. I think that is another breakthrough behavior for him. He normally does not appraoch Jerry to be picked up. And has a tendency to bite, when Jerry tries to pick him up. What a switch!
I have had a Quaker parrot in the past. She was extremely affectionate and loved to be held and cuddled. Alex does not like to be touched other than stepping up to be placed on his gym or on my shoulder. He still will not let me stroke his belly or scratch his head. I usually end up with a sore finger and a parrot that is laughing hysterically at me for hollering out, in pain.
The biggest difference in the two is the level of intellegience. Jada would talk, some. But she had a very limited vocabulary and she really didn't use her words in their proper context, except when she wanted to be cuddled and she would say, "Pick up Jada!" Alex usually speaks in concrete requests and replies to questions appropriately. He greets me in the afternoon by saying, "Hello, Mama." He tells the dogs, "Night, night" when I put them to bed. And he will say, "Shut up" when they are barking. He still says, "Here, kitty kitty" and answers, "Meow" when you repeat it to him.His word and phrase vocabulary is just too large to list it all, or even to remember, what all he can say, in just a few minutes.
We have definately come a long way from the aggressive little, green monster that would not let me near him, to a real, little, social butterfly. I am looking forward to the day that I can actually pet him and cuddle him.
I hope that the day will come, when Alex will enjoy snuggling under the blanket, on my chest while I read a book. I think we are on the way.