Hamster time!

Last week we had a red-letter day in our home. Madison has been begging for a hamster for weeks now. I was fine with it, but Warren was dragging his feet, using the old "I'll think about it..." line. Finally one night he heard Madison pray that Daddy would let her have a hamster, and he softened up. :) So Saturday we went and got all the necessary hamster paraphernalia (cage, bedding, food, chew blocks, and of course, the hamster). It was about $90 for everything! But Madison bought the actual hamster ($10) with her "own" money (usually nickles and pennies that she finds lying around the house, plus some money that Austin Grandma sent for her from Las Vegas. Anyway, Madison was over the moon bringing this hamster home. We put the cage together and told Madison to give "Fuzzy" some time to adjust to her new surroundings. But Madison just could not leave the poor animal alone. So within 10 minutes, she got bit! It was bleeding pretty badly, and Madison was hysterical, saying it was not a nice hamster and she wanted to take it back. I was ready to take it back, but Warren was the voice of reason. He told her we would wait 2 days and if she still wanted to take the hamster back, we would (we had a 2 week grace period for bringing it back). Haleigh came over to babysit and I told her that if she can say any positive things about the hamster, that would sure be a big help. When we got home from our night out, I asked Haleigh if Madison talked about the hamster, and she said "Oh yeah, that's all we did all night was play with the hamster. She was petting it, holding it...." Haleigh is truly a miracle worker. Love that girl!

Austin Grandma sent Fuzzy a clear plastic ball - you put the hamster in the ball and it can just run around the house wherever it pleases. Very funny! The girls can't seem to leave it alone, though - they keep picking the ball up, putting it in a little cart and pushing it around. Kind of defeats the purpose of the hamster getting all this great exercise! Warren finally had to buy some locks for the cage because the girls were getting in there all the time unsupervised, and we don't want them getting bitten, or hurting or losing the hamster!

Maya was funny - for a long time, she would call the hamster "Hamster" and emphatically deny that its name was Fuzzy. "It's not Fuzzy!! It's HAMSTER!!"

Plus, Maya's new thing is to frown and say "Nevermind!!" If you are trying to explain something to her or show her something that is contrary to what she wants to do or believe, she'll just frown and say "Nevermind!" Quite funny coming from a 2 year old.