Best! Fish! Ever! (Pets - Part 3)

And for the final post in this series, we are now the proud owners of several guppies (or gibbies, or gubbies depending on who is trying to come up with the right word at any given moment) and two mystery snails (and possibly a few ghost shrimp soon).

The guppies were sold by the dozen or half dozen so we ended up with six. Snickers has decided that guppies are the Best! Fish! Ever! Why? Because they are so CHEAP! Holy cow! We got ourselves Six! Quality! Feeder Guppies! for only $1.29. How can you go wrong? And they are tiny and cute to boot!

The tank that we currently have them in - a rather small acrylic tank is getting cloudy very quickly so I think we may have overdone it when we got two snails - one would have been plenty. But, when you're faced with these cute (albeit slimy and tentacled) creatures and they come in TWO DIFFERENT COLORS! Hello! How can I get just one color? Especially when Sweet Pea is standing at my side pointing out the cutest and bestest ones in the entire tank! "Mom! We have to get a gold one AND a black one! Can we can we can we?? Huh huh huh?

So, I think I may need to upgrade to a larger tank. Those darn snails! Fouling up the water! But I'd really rather not end up changing the water daily and certainly don't want my snails to be miserable. There is nothing worse than a grumpy snail. All day long it's squeak squeak squeak as they glide grumpily along the glass, sucking up algae and glaring out with their little glittering eye stalks. Hey! You! Are you gonna clean this thing up and get me some fresh water - something with a little oxygen in it perhaps?! But really, I read that the snails eat rotting vegetation, discarded fish food and algae, so they must be super happy - it's like a cesspool in there. Just kidding - it's not that bad, but it could be if I get busy and don't have time to keep up with it. And I know that's a given. When am I not busy? I don’t want to torture or kill these sweet yet slimy guys.

But the guppies seem happy. There is no annoying squeaking across the glass or popping up to the top to spit bubbles out at us as we walk by. (but the snails don’t really do that either.) So I assume they are probably as happy as a fish can be. They are still (and may always be) in the "oh-my-god-someone-is-coming-let's-hide-behind-the castle-so-they-can't-see-us" mode. Sweet sweet tiny little fishies. (You may start to sense a theme as you read through this blog. I like teeny tiny things of all kinds. More on that in a later post.)

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Furry Flurry (Pets - Part 2)

Continuing yesterday's post, we are also the owners of gerbils. Sweet Pea got two gerbils for her birthday. Cute little furry critters with tufted tails, fuzzy foot pads, big black eyes and lots and lots of quivering whiskers. Very cute and very very sweet.

Sandy, the larger of the two (but definitely not the dominant one) is the more cautious of the two, a little more skittish and on more than one occasion was dragged across the cage or pounced upon by the smaller, but more aggressive Snowbelly. Snowbelly was (yes, past tense :-( ) very small - noticeably smaller than Sandy and he had the most endearing little crooked tail. He was super curious and very friendly. Unfortunately, I didn't realize at the time that crooked tails are often the sign of sick/deformed/unhealthy gerbils. He certainly seemed healthy and happy when we got him but a couple of weeks ago something happened and he was stumbling and having 'balance issues'. He slept most of the time and even though he continued to eat and drink, he got super skinny and continually tripped and tipped over. It would have been comical if it wasn't so sad. Poor sweet little thing died this past weekend.

So, we decided to get Sandy a new friend. We were warned that it might be difficult or even impossible to introduce a new gerbil and have them get along, but we decided to try. In comes Frosty, a sweet little soft gray gerbil with disconcertingly (at least to me) red-hued eyes. They are a dark red that you almost think are dark brown, but no, on closer inspection they are definitely red (little vampire eyes!! Eeeeek!). But other than that, he is also very sweet. Very skittish, but he's still new to us so he needs more time to adjust.

Well, let's just say the first meeting of the gerbils was less than successful. It ended in a rolling, biting, twisting, angry ball of fur and teeth and nails - a furry flurry if you will. So for now, they are in separate cages. We may try a more gently-controlled, gradual meeting in the future knowing that they may need to be kept separated forever. Oh why can’t they all just get along?!

(Sorry for the image quality. It's not your eyes, just a very blurry picture.)

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Bubbles, Eleanor and Oreo (Pets - Part 1)

For a family with a husband who is allergic to cats and dogs we seem to be doing just fine on the pet front. We've had a couple of guinea pigs for a few years. First was Bubbles and Eleanor. Bubbles succumbed earlier this year to a nasty neck abscess (poor Bubbles - she was sweet and had quite an effervescent personality - hence the name.) Shortly after Bubble's death we brought home Oreo to keep little Eleanor company. They are sweet little animals (although rather stinky if we don't keep right on top of the cage cleaning. Ick!) They squeak when the refrigerator opens hoping for a bite of lettuce or a nice fresh carrot. They make awesome garbage disposals - they eat the strawberry leaves and apple skins, watermelon rind and carrot shavings. And in the summer they love a good dandelion leaf or handful of clover or plantain. And they can be very snuggly – there’s nothing like a little tiny body to warm your lap as you watch TV. (as long as the warmth is from body heat and not, well, they have been known to, um, nevermind.)

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Squeak!

  'Nuff said:

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Blurgonoid!

Snickers often talks in his sleep. Sometimes, I'm lying in the same room, trying to sleep next to a hair-snuggling, warmth-loving kindergartner and I hear a conversation start in the next bed. It goes like this:

Snickers: greebadub florbdummery
Me: What?
Snickers: snirklenoid frittercakes
Me: Huh?
Snickers: zzzzzzz

Oh. OK. He's just talking in his sleep. Sometimes I'll go over and smooth his hair back and murmur quietly and he will quiet down. Usually it's just a few indecipherable words here and there. I can never manage to quite make out what he's saying. Oh, it sounds like real words, real conversation, but I just can't quite make it out. The other night he fell asleep in my bed. I had to move him, his bevy of plush that goes with him wherever he sleeps (see previous post) and his pillows. I started with his animals. As I removed the first one he said, very loudly and clearly, "Blurgonoid!" and rolled over. Despite the exclamation, I continued to move the animals, his pillows and him to his own bed. He never woke up through the transfer, but later, after he was tucked in, animals gathered around and I was lying in my own (nicely warmed) bed, I heard a few more mumbled, surely unintelligible phrases from down the hall. I have to wonder just what he's dreaming about.


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The Curse of the Slinky

Slinkies. Aren't they fun? The word just slides out of the mouth - a slight hiss, a metallic clink and another hiss. Just the word, uttered softly is reminiscent of the sound the toy makes.

But despite how much fun they can be, I am always amazed at how quickly they become unusable. Can't you just hear the jingling jangle of the metal spirals as they cascade down the stairs, the slink-slink-slink-slink sounds as they twist and jiggle, vibrate and sway from hand to hand, the grating shrieks of frustration when somehow, yet again, another slinky, has been twisted into an unrecognizable tangle of metal wires. Why does that happen?

Could it be the orderly way they are gently tipped down the stairs to walk sedately from step to step? Could it be the gentle handling as they are passed from hand to hand, rolling in orderly waves and slinking softly? Or perhaps it's the wild, undulating waves as the wires stretch to their fullest, forming impossible curves and eliciting giggles and shrieks. Perhaps it's the wild sideways thwang! as the end is released across the room to thwock! into the wall. Perhaps it's even the twang and clatter as the overstretched wires snap back, wrapping metal curves around and around each other like a tangle of kitten-snared yarn.

We may never know. I fear the Curse of the Slinky may always remain a mystery.

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How Now Round Cow

My kids like stuffed animals. Anything soft, furry and plush is a candidate for their admiration and ownership. Cute is optional - at least as far as I can tell, but that could just be a difference in opinion. I would say that we are almost overrun with plush. (My husband would say that yes, we are very much overrun with plush. So much so that we should toss 99% of it out. Now. In the trash. Please. And we'll still have too much. But his wish has yet to come true.) At times, we open the kids bedroom door and out pours a pile of plush seven feet tall, scattering across the carpet like the tribbles on that old Star Trek episode. And, by the way, we also own a tribble. It is soft, furry, plush and it wiggles and chitters just like the real thing. (Yes, I know. They aren't REALLY real. But you know what I mean.) The ironic things is that my husband bought it. Yes, he purchased plush despite the fact that he often loudly laments the over-abundance of plush in this house. But it's Star Trek related so I guess that makes it OK.

The kids beds are so full of plush there is almost no room for them to sleep. In fact, sometimes when I check on them in the night, it takes me a minute or so to find them under the piles of fur, plastic eyeballs and whiskers. They are often sweaty and mumbling in their sleep about squirrels in their hair or chipmunks in their pajamas!

But not all of the animals are in the beds. They are also under the beds, next to the beds, in the closets, in the shelves and drawers, scattered willy-nilly across the carpets and sometimes they can even be found in their cereal bowls in the morning:

We even make their clothes out of these things! (OK, not yet, but we could. We have enough. Can't you just see these kids now, covered in a pile of stitched together animals - how cute! And not a subject of ridicule at school at all. Nuh-uh!

There's Mr. Big, a large dog, who is by no means the largest of them, just a sort-of big one. Then of course there is cow-ey and moo-ey. And don't forget the elephants - Ellie Ellie Mushabelly, Ellie Ellie Small Belly, Ellie Ellie Tiny Belly, Ellie Ellie Teeny Belly, Ellie Ellie Puppet Belly, Ellie Ellie Gift Card Belly (and the list goes on). There's Baby Floppy and his brother, Brother Floppy. There's Doggyn, Flippy, Fuzzy, Cutie, Kitty, Doggy, Snow Storm, Sugar Cube, Prickles, Sunny Bear, Towzy, Tiny, Climber, Cupcake, Night, Fuzzbutt, Rainbow Bear, Francesca, Frederick, Bluebell and many many many many many many many many many many many many many many more.

One of my favorites is King Moo-ey. I can't help but exclaim (often and loudly) upon seeing him "HOW NOW ROUND COW!" Isn't he the cutest, roundest, little cow you've ever seen?

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Sweety Goodness

Oh my goodness! These were (notice the past tense) the sweetest little things! I went through my local Little Caesar's drive-thru recently to pick up a few pizzas. The car was rather noisy - the back was full of kids so when the woman handed me my pizzas there were a couple bags of 'Little Caesar's Cookies' on top for the kids. The bag shows Little Caesar's face with a clear window for a mouth and a handful of little cookies inside. These were the sweetest (and by that I mean cutest, as well as tastiest) little cookies. Delectable little morsels of sweety goodness. They are shaped like little pizzas, and little pizza slices and little Little Caesar's dude heads. I didn't say these were for the kids, did I?

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Fun With Food

I bought some raspberries and a kiwi today. It turns out there are many uses for raspberries. They are little cups - just fill 'em up with water. It's a lot of work if you're really thirsty, but it's fun. And cute. And that's all that counts, right?

They also make great hats for finger people. Really. No, I mean it. Try it. Draw a little face on your little finger, put the raspberry hat on top and voila! A finger person with a hat. Cool, right? A little bit? Well, it's tasty anyway. Just eat the hat. But not the finger. That would hurt. Ok, I admit it. Nothing better to blog about today. Here's some pictures then:

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Inspiration

This here:

is part of where the inspiration for 'Ginormous Duck' came from. Snickers, my middle child, loves ducks! It all started on a trip to Disney a couple of years ago. There were lots of birds around - sea gulls, sparrows, pretty brown and black starling-sized things I never did identify and ducks. Little white-speckled, black-bodied, peeping ducks, big, scary, mean-looking ducks and, of course, lots of mallard ducks. The waddling, the quacking, the cute little feathered bodies. It was love at first site. He even got one to eat popcorn out of his hand.

Out of that trip came the need to own lots of plush ducks. He owns some that quack, some big and some small, some realistic and some not so much, but all of them are cute and cuddly. At one point he decided he wanted to have a "Ginormous Duck"! He never did get that duck (at least not yet - huge plush ducks are hard to come by) but since that time, it's been there - slowly burbling away in the back of my mind. This is it's first incarnation. We'll see where it goes from here.

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