I GAVE IN!

Please tell me who came up with the idea to have a rat as a pet? Hamster-rat....they are all the same to me! As of Saturday, we now have a Russian hamster. What's the deal with the Russian part? Did they acquire it from some poor Russian lady's house, cut it's tail off and then ship it to the U.S. because we will buy anything????

It all started while Mark and I were in South Beach a few weeks ago. Leigh Ashley called to ask if Mark's parents could buy her a Guinea pig and we said "no". She saw Daniel's (her cousin) and decided that she just had to have one. It wasn't going to fly with us. Mark said that Michael is constantly complaining about that pig and that's the last thing that we need at our house!

I really thought that she would forget about it, but she did not. She did lots of research on the computer about Guinea pigs and hamsters. I'm not sure why, but she changed to wanting a hamster. So, every day I've heard all of the reasons why I should let her get a hamster. I buy CoCo's dog food at Petsmart, so she insisted on going with me to get it last week when we were preparing for the hurricane. I looked at the hamsters and tried to find something appealing about them. I had no idea that there were that many types of "rats". There were big ones, mini ones, with tail, without tail and even hairless ones! You talk about u-g-l-y...... oh, there's no words to describe a hairless rat! I tried to convince her how pretty a fish tank would look in her room, but it didn't work. Finally, I was able to get up to the cashier with a $12 small bag of Yorkie dog food and a box of treats.

Her birthday is October 6th, so she decided to play that card. "Mommy, that's all I want for my birthday", she said. Well, I gave in. Mark's parents took her to get her early birthday gift and she was so excited. I explained to her that I will not clean out the cage nor will I pick the rat up. Mark said that before long I'll be carrying it on my shoulder to pick up carpool, and I told him he was dead wrong! He said that because I got CoCo for Leigh Ashley after she begged for a dog, but now I'm attached to him and he's my dog.

The Russian rat's name is Ella. She sleeps all day and then runs on her wheel all night! I haven't figured out where she thinks she's going on that wheel, but she gets after it! Mark said she's going the same place I am on a treadmill, but I don't think she's trying to work off a six pack of mountain dew like I am. Leigh Ashley loves her, so I'm going to tolerate the little critter. Oh, the joys of motherhood!

After looking forward to being able to be a cheerleader at the school, the day finally arrived for a ton of 5th grade girls. I've posted a few pictures of my little cheerleader. She's growing up so fast! She asked to crank my car the other day and has started changing my radio stations..... oh, the day is coming soon when she doesn't think that mom's the greatest:(