And the winner is... Squirt!

The many long and hard days of remembering to feed the fish have finally paid off for Laine, Eve, and James. After much deliberation and lots of excited yelling about which pet would be the best, with a few vetoes by Grandma, the three children decided to get a water turtle for a pet. We did a little reading and looking around at the pet store and ended up deciding on a red-eared slider that the children have named Squirt. He's active and interesting, eats little goldfish, and the kids are having a ball with him so far. We set up his aquarium with a basking rock for him to rest on with a basking light for him to rest under, a castle for the fish to live in, and an industrial strength aquarium filter so the tank would always smell fresh and clean. Red-eared sliders start off pretty small, a juvenile like Squirt has a shell about four inches long, but they can grow up to be over a foot long. They live about 50 years if properly cared for, so this is looking like a pet for the long haul.

The Pet Situation

As some of you may recall, several months ago we added a new family member in the person of a small betta fish named Bluetail. The kids really wanted a dog, but I figured that was something they probably ought to work up to from something smaller, so we ended up making a deal: if the kids could remember to feed the fish every day for two months, we would get a new, bigger pet. Well, after a few false starts, we're just a few days away from the landmark day of two months of perfect pet-keeping. Deciding on what the next pet will be has been quite a project in itself, we've made a few rounds to various pet stores and here are the lists that the kids came up with.



This first one was their first crack at it a few weeks ago, it features (for those having trouble reading the picture, man I love kid spelling):
GOLDFISH
HAMSTER
GUINEAPIGVPLL
CARNARY
eeL
TURTUL
FROQ
GUPPY
BLACKMOLLY
BUNNY.P

They put together the second list after spending half the day on Saturday visiting some more pet stores. For the picture reading impaired:
Mice.v
HAMsteR.v
TURtule.vLW
Rabits
Ginuqig
fi*sh
blakmoley
GuPey
Goldfir*sh
eel
Grble
rat
Lisrd
S*naKe
Chranchla
PiG
Knarey
Parakeyt

I'm quietly trying to steer them towards a nice, low-maintenance aquarium with a mess of little feeder fish and a swimming turtle, but I'm pretty much ok with any of the stuff on the list, except maybe the Chranchla (tarantula), since those can be poisonous and I don't think they'd be very good for a two-year-old. I'm also trying to play down the small, quick things that can escape from stubby pet owners that have the reflexes of a three toed sloth on valium, but I figure we can have those as long as we set up a child proof cage so they can't let 'em out without adult supervision.

Fairies and Reading and School, Oh My!

For those who have never had a chance to witness my girls voracious reading habits, you should probably know that for a four and a six year old these girls are serious readers. Laine devoured the first sixteen Magic Tree House books and Eve followed close behind. Their new favorite reading materials are the million and one fairy books written by a group of authors that all share the pseudonym of Daisy Meadows. The fairy books consist of a bunch of series, each with seven books, each featuring a different set of fairies. Eve is currently loving the weather fairies while Laine chomps through the rainbow fairies. I think they're having a contest for who can finish first, but I can never quite figure out the rules of the competition. As far as I can tell, the winner get the first go at the dance fairies series, but I could be wrong, it's hard to tell, the girls talk fast and laugh a lot when I try to understand the game.


James on the other hand is pretty easy to figure out. He's excited to be a school boy one day and get to go to school like his sisters. Some days he likes to borrow Eve's backpack, put it on upside down, and walk around the house announcing that he's going to school. He's so cute it's unbelievable. He also loves being turned upside down and tickled, but I figure that's pretty standard for age two.

I had my birthday yesterday, we celebrated by going to the state fair and seeing a bunch of animals and some art and riding some of the carnival rides there. The girls had a ball at the photography exhibit doing the photo scavenger hunt, they found all the pictures on the list except for the dog with the hat. They also thought seeing the sheep get sheared was pretty cool. One of the weird challenges of being a single parent is that you don't automatically have someone to take the kids to get you a present using your own money anymore. Took me a while to figure out what to do, but I ended up slipping my mom some cash and telling her to take the kids shopping. That ended up pretty well, they got to go get some presents for Daddy and I got some shirts that don't fit and a very delicious chocolate cake. All in all it was a pretty good day.

School, trips, and a new routine

The kids finished up their second week of school on Friday, and the adjustment to the new flow of life is well underway. The three little monkeys wake up each morning to grab some breakfast and try to sneak in a few cartoons while try to sneak in some work before the day gets going. Laine heads to school at 8:20, most days I'm able to walk along with her up to H. R. Driggs Elementary. The morning walk is nice, all of the kids in the neighborhood walk to school so it's like a little parade to school every day. Then it's time to get some work done, conference calls or research or putting together documents for my current project. At noon it's time to switch gears again and get Eve off to preschool and James down for his nap. A few more hours of work to hopefully finish my work day (so I don't have to get back to the grind after the kids go to bed) then it's off to pick Eve up then take Laine to Kung Fu, take Eve to dance lessons (starting this Thursday, she's so excited), run to the bank, pick them up from lessons, shop for food, buy more socks (how do they always lose their socks?), make dinner (something awesome!), feed the kids, go over homework, get teeth brushed, tuck them in with books for our new bedtime reading routine, say prayers, read scriptures, then make up a new and original bedtime story on the fly from stuff they choose, hugs and kisses, lights out, then head upstairs and blow off some steam (so I can do the whole thing again tomorrow). How do single parents who don't have awesome families to help out survive this?

Then of course it's time to start prepping things out for my next trip to the East Coast for business. It's been pretty steady at a three-day trip (three full days there, which means four nights away) once a month, sometimes with more notice than other times. I only had a week's notice on this last one, and I found out that it only takes eight adult relatives in a coordinated schedule to replace one superdad. Pretty good on their part, I would have thought it would take at least ten of 'em. Seriously, how do single parents who don't have awesome families to help out survive this? On the upside I get my airline silver medallion next trip, that's 25,000 miles I'll have flown and now I won't have to wait as long in the security line every time.

Laine seems to be loving her first grade class, Eve has no complaints about preschool, and James is still the king of afternoon naps. Thanks to everyone who helps so much, we really couldn't do this without you.