The Young and the Restless

Dodged the dog bullet one more time

The bi-annual dog guilt trip was a little behind schedule this season.  I think the fish that wouldn't die, the constant restocking of snails (the last one escaped and we found his decomposed body in the lego box) and the adopted class tadpole (which the fish ate while we were out of town) bought me a little more time.  But it was bound to happen and we had the same conversation we always have, them telling me I'm denying them of their childhood, me telling them I don't need another mouth to feed and more poop to clean and and then deflecting all other inquiries to Jason.  Yes, I know the look on their faces would be priceless if I got them a dog, but I get that same look from Jayden every time I tell him we can have ramen for dinner, so I still don't see what's in it for me.  But I definately got some serious mom points when I told them they could keep this frog and lizard that they found stranded in the pool.  They spent the day creating habitats, catching bugs, narrowing down names and giving the lizard rides on the trike and remote control truck.  And then if you give a mouse a cookie...they decided to scrape up every last penny and buy like a terrarium or something.  Jayden spent the entire day on petsmart.com and walmart.com pricing out lizards and tanks. The next day I took them to PetSmart with a get-a-lizard-and-go mentality, but it's never that easy. Of course not.  The $7.99 green anole lizard turned into a $60 tank, lid, heat lamp, bulbs and food investment.  Two hours and like twenty pet choices later they are the proud owners of hamsters.  Chinese dwarf hamsters none the less.  It was a good choice, they are over the moon about them and once again it proved that I don't have to get a dog to be a good mom.  Buuuuuut if they are this excited about hamsters, can you even imagine the excitement over a dog...?  Better go buy more ramen.

all this love and then they dispose of them in the backyard like yesterday's trash the minute they get the hamsters. He really was a sweet and tame little lizard. Jayden would sit with him on his shoulder while watching tv and it never tried to escape. When he did let it go in the backyard it just hung out on the back porch for like 15 minutes. I kinda got attached to the little fella and would slip him a bug or two and lettuce leaves when no one was looking.  I was sad to see him go.

Jason thinks they look like rats, but I think they're really cute.  This is, however coming from a girl who snuck her own pet hampster to church and it chewed a hole right through her scripture case.