Sweetfoot and Gobbles

Somehow Ben got it in his mind that he wanted a pet.  He wanted either a snake or a hamster.  As a family, we're not in the best spot to be taking care of a puppy (too many babies to take care of...), so something stuck in an aquarium seemed fine to us.  I don't think the snake even got consideration, so we researched which to get: a guinea pig, a hamster or a gerbil.

From experience I know that guinea pig's are too loud.  Hamsters bite more than gerbils apparently, so gerbils (they are social, so you need to get 2) it is.

They were quite a hit the first day, but in a tribute to children's short attention span, they didn't really even notice them the second day.

Ben named the brown one Sweetfoot and the other one....Gerbil.  I decided to name the other one Nibbles instead...but then Julia came along and started calling them "Gobbles", so we named the gray one Gobbles.

Though only slightly interested in watching the gerbils, Ben is very interested in being a gerbil.  He has made a tail from clippy blocks and likes to pretend he's nesting, chewing on cardboard tubes and running on the hamster wheel...which involves laying on the exercise ball and rolling around a little bit.

Yesterday, we were trying to get ready to take Ben to school and I couldn't find Julia's shoe anywhere.  I searched the entire house, under everything, in toy boxes, could not find it.  I put boots on her and we left.

Later that day I went to throw a washcloth in the washer.  Low and behold I found Julia's shoe.  As well as Ben's shoe, two pairs of mittens, two hats and a scarf.

Today Beth wanted Julia to walk down the stairs so she said, "Come on Julia, let's go downstairs."  Julia said, "No."  Beth said, "Why not?"  Julia replied, "Cause."  Beth said, apparently we are raising a teenager.