I can talk, Can you fly?

I can talk, can you fly? This is the phrase that we are trying to teach my birds to say. My family is large if you count all of our pets. We have 2 dogs, 3 parrots, and 6 cats. It's a good thing that I have a fairly big house.
It's difficult most of the time to give the kids the attention that they need. Add on top of that 3 African Grey Parrots, supposed to be the smartest birds in existence, and the other 4 legged variety of pets. The six cats of course are not much of a problem. Everyone has seen the bumper sticker that reads " Dogs have Masters, Cats have Staff." This phrase is very true. When the cats want attention, they come and demand it. The two dogs, both black lab mixes, are very attention oriented, and jealous. You can't pet one without the other sticking his nose in. Although, some of the cats are like that sometimes too. Today, however, I want to talk about my birds.
African Grey Parrots, are supposed to be the smartest birds in existence today. They can accumulate a vocabulary of around 2,000 words. The average adult human, has a vocab of about 5,000 words. For those readers who don't know much about birds, these birds have the equivalent intelligence, and neediness of a two year old human. Yes, they will have "terrible two's" until they die at a ripe old age of about 80 years or so. Luckily for me, one of the birds, Oscar, (aptly named from Oscar the Grouch) is about 25, and the other two, Samantha & Dorian, egg-mates, are about 15.
Oscar can say many things, and make many sounds, and whistles many recognizable tunes. Sam and Dorian, on the other hand are different. Dorian only seems to make sounds, soft cooing, and some occasional whistling. Sam on the other hand is very outgoing. He will talk all day long, in many different voices. We are Sam and Dorians third owners. Most of what Sam says sounds much like what he has picked up from an answering machine. Otherwise, he just mimicks phrases that have been spoken to him over the years. "What are you doin?" "No Bite" "Quit That" etc.. etc.. etc.. You get the picture.
As a general rule of thumb, you must repeat the word or phrase to be learned several times. Slowly and clearly spoken so that when the bird repeats it, it will come out clearly. My wife and I have been trying to get all three to say "I can talk, can you fly?" since we brought them home this past spring.
These birds are very smart, and I enjoy spending time with them and teaching them tricks. They learn tricks and commands very quickly and easily. They seem to learn much faster even than dogs do. It does help that I have read books, and joined online forums in relation to my birds. I have videos and training manuals, even owners manuals if you will. I am happy that because of their longevity in captivity, that they will be my friends probably until I die. It is likely that they will outlive me and my wife, and my children will inherit them. Oh well. At least my kids like them too!