Luciana has pointed out that the rats haven't received nearly enough blog coverage lately, as they've been eclipsed by Poppy.  So I will talk about the ratty boys today.

Usually I spend my time with the ratty boys at night.  I go in to read to Luce before bed and spend time playing with the rats.  I am usually wearing lounge wear, with one of my garments having a pocket on the right side and the other garment having a pocket at the left breast.  These pockets are important, because they often contain the nightly cat treats, which the rats love.

They learned fairly early on how to check each pocket for treats and to lift them if found.  I now know enough to guard my pockets if they contain cat treats.  The rats quickly figured out a countermeasure to my countermeasure.  They have always enjoyed running up the inside of my sleeves and playing around inside my voluminous lounge wear/pajamas.  I noticed some persistent activity in my right hip area, and found that Quince had climbed into my sleeve as usual but instead of playing like usual, he had zeroed in on the pocket and was working on chewing a hole in the fabric to get to the cat treats.  It didn't take the other two very long to figure that move out, so now I have to be really careful with guarding my pockets from both sides.

Watching the three of them play together and wrestle like all brothers do is so entertaining!  One will take a flying leap at one of their brothers from 2 or 3 feet away, and the two start rolling around wrestling.  As soon as the third sees what the others are up to, he will stop whatever he's doing and launch himself into the pile.  Like all brothers, sometimes it gets a little out of hand and someone ends up getting hurt (not injured), and he gives a loud squeak to let them know.  Usually they settle down at that point, but now and then I have to pick someone up and remind them to be nice, which usually serves as a little distraction which is enough to lower  the intensity of the play.  They have such a cool relationship!  I love the way they all like to snuggle up together to sleep.

The video is of the boys trying to get the jawbreaker out of Luciana's mouth.  They like to inspect your mouth if you have the audacity to eat in front of them, and if they like the smell of what you have, they will try to make it their own.

'Tis the season where everyone on college campuses across the U.S. is stressed.  Students are slacking on thing like sleep and personal grooming.  The halls are filled with students wandering around in sweats with vague, glazed, worried expressions, fueled on only caffeine.  Professors are starting to lose track of what day of the week it is, as all days are all filled with grading and very stressed students (who probably should have started their final projects a few weeks earlier than they did) looking for help.

I'm in my last week of classes, and that means I have many--so many!--final projects coming in over the next few days, which means lots of grading.  Though I don't enjoy the actual process of assigning grades, I do enjoy seeing their projects. Finals are next week. Only one of my classes is actually taking a final exam, and the other three are submitting projects.  Two classes will also be doing presentations next week.

Poppy is still in her very curious toddler phase.  She wants to taste and play with everything.  It's so fun to watch the intensity with which her little tongue explores every texture within reach.  She also likes to sit on my keyboard and watch my screen while I'm working, and that makes typing quite challenging.  My friend Allegrea was wearing a ring with wavy ridges on it, and Poppy just LOVED playing with that.  She was obsessed!

Her parents are still doing a fantastic job at taking care of her.  I am so proud of how well they've raised her and continue to do so.  I wish more humans would be as active, involved, and loving with their children.  She has quite a charmed life!  When she's in the herbivore room, her parents are always near (less than a foot away), with one on each side of her.  If she gets too far away, they call her back to them.  She is getting really good at flying.  I'm quite impressed by how well she is doing.  She is eating on her own.  I've seen her daddy escort her to the food dishes many times, and she is usually the first one to come and get their nightly produce treats.

When she comes out to play/work with me, I try to always bring her an assortment of items to explore and play with, so her brain continues to build neural networks.  Science (and simple observation) has shown us that an enriched environment makes a better brain and a happier being, so we are working hard to keep Poppy happy, healthy, and smart.

When I return her to her parents, they are always so happy to see her come back.  They immediately start chirping to call her over (they have very distinctive sounds that they use to communicate with each other) and when she arrives they check her over to make sure she's okay and then tidy up her feathers.  I swear I've seen them shoot glances my way that make me feel very small for returning their child to them in such a messy state (though she looks fine to my eyes).  She then hits her daddy up for some food.  He tries to escort her to one of the dishes a few times, but usually gives in and feeds her.  Then she goes to hit her mommy up for some food.  Daddy seems to do more of the directing and guiding, where mommy just feeds her without making an effort at getting her to eat on her own.

One of the many very cool things about cockatiels is that like so many other birds, they generally mate for life and share equally in the nesting/parenting.  From the very beginning, Darwin (daddy) has taken equal time sitting on the eggs and later Poppy, feeding, teaching, etc.  They really do work equally hard at parenting.  It has been so fun to watch their partnership through this process.  I wish more humans raised their children with such a smooth, equal partnership.  Darwin and Hurley were so impressive for first-time parents.  I love all of my animals equally and with every fiber in my body--but I have a little extra respect for Hurley and Darwin after watching their self-sacrificing, nearly perfect parenting!  And they did it all without hands!  I am humbled by them.

They grow up so fast!

I started the week off with the best of intentions, and started working on a blog post on Monday morning.  I got pulled away from it and never managed to return.  The students are heading into panic season, with final projects due.  Despite my many warnings that programming projects cannot be started at the last minute like their other homework assignments, many of them waited until just a few short days before the project was due to start it.  I am getting urgent, panicky emails, phone calls, FB messages, office hours visits, non-office hours visits--they track me down.  It's frustrating to be so swamped with work, because they chose to ignore my warnings.  UGH!  Yet even though it was their own choice to put this off, I don't have the heart to say I won't help them or look at their code.  As long as they're willing to learn something, I will find time to facilitate it.  I will be a little irritated about it deep inside, though.

As rough as this semester has been, I am very happy that I've returned to teaching full-time.  I love everything about teaching except grading.   I also hate meetings, but they seem to be inescapable.  I am excited to see their final projects--especially my programmers and web developers!  I enjoy looking at their work but not giving them a grade.  It feels much more judgmental and authoritarian than I am comfortable with. Until colleges offer a grade-free degree option, I will have to bear with this one unpleasant aspect.

The only other unpleasant side effect of teaching full time again is that it has apparently brought back my laryngitis problems.  I am currently unable to speak above a whisper.  I squeaked through last night's class (literally!) and am already frustrated and crabby from being voiceless.  I got laryngitis once or twice per semester by the end of my previous full-time teaching stint, and then only had it once in the six years that I was only teaching one class per semester.  I will have to go back to looking for ways to prevent this and make sure I always have a "Plan B" for class in case my voice decides not to show up.

Poppy is so grown up (she is in the background of this picture)!  She is as big as her parents--maybe slightly bigger than her mommy (in the foreground of this picture)--except her tail feathers are still shorter.  She can fly fairly well already.  She still can't control the height very well and usually rises up to the ceiling.  She is able to steer and control where she goes, just not how high she goes.  She is doing well though and will have it down in no time.

She is starting to eat some things on her own (especially greens and apples) but still follows her parents around whining for food nearly all the time.  They still feed her, which is quite comical now, as she is so big.  She loves to come out and sit with me while I work for a few hours a day.  She intermittently chews/explores with her beak, naps, and snuggles.

Tica is enamored with Poppy.  They are never unsupervised, but under full adult supervision, Tica likes to headbutt Poppy, and Poppy likes to preen her ears and head.  They are just adorable!