Good News

Great news...got home last night and the little guinea pig baby that I thought wasn't going to make it is doing just fine. I had prepared the kids for a stiff corpse but we were elated.

So for those of you that read my last post about my daughter's budgie kicking the bucket, you will remember the death talk. Well...this morning I was awaken again by my daughter...again way too early in the morning (with the empty bottle of red wine still on the counter from the night before). She woke me up to advise me that my son's guinea pig had babies and I just had to get up and see them. I said she must be mistaken and go back to bed. Being 7, she obviously can count and she informed me that the night before there were 2 guinea pigs in the cage and today there are 4.So

I get up...go downstairs into the boy's room and there are indeed 2, surprisingly very large, guinea pig babies. One is up and boogying along, the other...not so much. He is kind of laying on his side twitching. So once again, we are talking about death at 6:15 in the morning. Why am I not allowed to sleep!! I explained to Isaac that this baby is probably not going to make it. He was quite upset because Slipper (mom guinea) was not cleaning him or paying him any attention at all. We then spoke about survival of the fittest and how the mom will just leave him be if he is not going to make it. My daughter thought we should quickly sell him before he died so we can at least get some money out of him. Always the entrepreneur.

It is always quite the feat trying to keep my already ADHD ridden son focused in the morning, let alone throwing new guinea pig babies into the mix. I think my talk this morning served more than one purpose. I explained in detail how if a mommy thinks one of their babies is not going to make it they get virtually no attention, no food, no milk...nada...nothing...zilch. At which point I looked up and made quiet eye contact with each of my 3 angels. I'm pretty sure they got the message.We will see...

Didn't start the day off well. Snowstorm, school was cancelled and my daughter's budgie "Elvis" died.I was awaken this morning with my 7 year old daughter crying...Mommy...Elvis is dead!! I rolled over, looked at the clock (6:15am) and replied, of course he is honey, he died a long time ago, not new news. Only once I woke up completely did I understand what she was saying. Heidi's mate, Elvis was indeed dead, laying on the bottom of the cage, with Heidi standing over him chirping at him to get up. Very sad sight.I scooped Elvis out of the cage, put him in a shoe box and went back to bed.

A little harsh maybe, but it was 6:15 in the morning. Only once I realized that she was not going to let me go back to sleep did I decide to talk to her about death. My sons learned the hard way. They had 2 grandfathers die within months of each other before my daughter was born. So Grace's first lesson was with Elvis. Our chat consisted of explaining the circle of life and that animals adapt. Heidi will take to her new cage mate, when we go get him, and she won't miss Elvis forever. Grace looked at me and asked if I would adapt if anything happened to Dad. I looked her square in the face and answered as honest as I could. I said Grace, people aren't all that different from animals. I then went back to bed.

Do you think she let me go back to sleep? No. But it gets better. She cried for a bit. Told her brothers, who usually are not her allies in anything, who were surprisingly very kind to her about her loss. Then she walked back into my room and explained that it's going to be ok. Both Elvis and Heidi came with a 30 day warranty.