I want one of those...

I was going to write this post 'one day' and it was going to have a completely different slant on it... But as 'fate' would have it, Liam has prompted this one, so here goes.

Liam was watching Clifford the Big Red Dog show... I wasn't really paying much attention to it at all, but apparently, at the end of the program, they showed...

Several different children and with them? Their dog(s).

When Liam started saying, "I want one of those..." I wasn't really sure what he was talking about, and I asked him what he'd said. He said again, "I want one of those" and pointed toward the t.v. I looked up and was slightly afraid of what he was indicating. I asked him what it was that he wanted. He said, "one of those dogs..."

Good Grief! Does he even know what he's saying? (Rebekah heard him from the other room she'd just walked into, and said, "Did I just hear him ask for what I think he asked for?")

O.K. to begin with, I am not a dog person (or a cat person, or an animal person in general). I have never wanted a dog or cat at my house. When Bill and I first got engaged, that was a source of teasing from his parents, that I would not let their son have a dog!!! He's always had a dog! and a cat or several of each, and a Pony! yes he had a pony as a child. It was an Ornery pony, and hard to do much with it, as when Bill would ride it the pony would run him into the trees to swipe him off it's back and onto the ground!

Secondly, I am not a fastidious housekeeper, I'm sure you've all noticed! (I have a lot of clutter, or as I once heard it put... 'I'm Horizontally Surface Challenged' I also have a problem with out of site out of mind... If I have something I need to get to, or a project I have to get done, and I put it away somewhere??? It's gone for months/years!) but that being the case, I have six kids and a crazy house and I do not need an animal in the mix! Besides, if I had an animal, it would have to be an out door animal, since that is how I was raised, and I just don't do indoor pets.

Thirdly, (do I really need to go on???)

Liam is afraid of animals - mostly! He will cringe - more of a whole body shudder - cower, and often completely freak out when a person's pet, usually a dog, (but he has been known to come unglued at the sight of a cat crossing a room as well), comes anywhere near him! (within his sight or hearing) For a little while when he first started talking, he would ask if anyone had a dog as we pulled up to someones house to play or visit, etc. He would be cowering behind me, and asking, do they have a dog? I would have to pick him up even as I reassured him there were no dogs at 'this' house... or that they would put the dog in a room or something. Some friends have witnessed this freaking out, whole body shaking, crawling/clawing his way into my arms as high and fast as he could possibly get... on more than one occasion!

Now in the past we had a couple of gold fish (Simba and Nala is what Rebekah and Amanda named them). We took a long vacation home to visit Bill's parents one summer while Bill was at a military school for 3 months, and so I sent them to my friend's house to live in her nice large 100 gallon aquarium for the summer. When we returned, she indicated on several occasions that we could have them back... I was fine with their continued absence, so they never did return to us.

Sariah attended a nature camp at Camp McDowell last year when she was in 6th grade. Bill went with, as a chaperon. I remember him coming home and telling me how she had held a snake and how her eyes 'just lit up'!!! I thought, that's nice, but, so what!

As Christmas approached that year, she had asked for and Bill was pushing for her to get a snake. I was definitely NOT convinced! By Christmas they had worn me down, and so Santa got her the whole set up and she got to go pick out the snake she wanted (a small baby corn snake) the next day. It has been interesting over the past year + to watch as it has changed and shed and grown. I believe I've actually held it once.

The same year, Rebekah had a class with a teacher at the High School who had several snakes in the classroom. Many of the kids became very accustomed to the snakes, and we'd hear about how she'd go to class, pick up one of her favorites (Checkers - a corn snake, thus named because of the checkered pattern on the underside of the corn snake) and drape him around the back of her neck and have him crawl about her and crawl into her front pocket of her hoodie, or what not, all throughout class. For Rebekah's 17th birthday, that year, she too got a snake - another baby corn snake...

It has been interesting to see the two of them, as they have grown at different rates, and they have slightly different personalities as well. Sariah's is very calm and mellow, and Rebekah's is a bit more tense... doesn't like to be messed with all that much, which is good as she knows a bit more how to handle them, and Sariah can totally hold and pass her snake around to all the eagerly waiting children that want to hold it.

Liam has been from day one, FASCINATED!!!!! He loves to touch/pet the snakes, and visit, look at the snakes. He loves for it to crawl on his arm and wrap itself around his little hand and arm. I bought some small little toy snakes for a rain forest diarama Sariah had to do for school once, (Liam added Woody) and the extra snakes have become Liam's to play with. He will occasionally ask for me to wrap them around his little arm... they are his "nake's". He also found a little plastic Lizard that he plays with as well. We worry a little bit about him 'finding' a snake in the wild... and havig NO FEAR!!!!!

The snakes over all have been quite painless as far as upkeep go. You buy food and feed them once a week and that's about it! (O.K. so I don't buy the food, Bill or Rebekah does that part. I don't watch as they are fed! I don't want any part of that, but the fact that it only has to be done once a week or so, is a nice thing.).

I was going to do a whole blogpost titled:

SNAKES on a TRAIN!!!!!

Notice the checkered pattern on the underside of the snake that is curled around the bridge (if you click it it will be larger and easier to see)

Notice the one snake inside the 'barn', and the other one going along outside it.

Over the past year when Bill has gone to the local little pet/creature store, for food, frequently, one or more of the younger siblings has gone with him. Hannah started checking out this Bearded Dragon Lizard that they have there. She wanted a lizard, and started saying that was all she wanted for Christmas. Again I fought it... and again, I 'lost'.

So, this past Christmas, Hannah got a small little Bearded Dragon. I have to say it is kind of cute (in a weird sort of way). The lizard, takes more time and attention than the snakes... you have to feed it greens, like kale - daily, in the morning. Then in the afternoon you have to give it some crickets as well. So, now we have to keep crickets as well! They die like crazy! You have to feed them these little cubes of food and water so they are well hydrated, as that is part of the Lizards, fluid intake daily as well. Good grief! What have I gotten myself into!?!?!

Shortly after getting Hannah's lizard, I said something about, "How did I ever end up with REPTILES!!!!!?????? at my house?????" The very quick response from one of my lovely children was, "Well, you wouldn't let us have a dog!"

THANKS.....