Fences, Hamsters, & Girlfriends

Our internet crashed last night, so I was disconnected from the world. We have an internet phone, so that was useless, too. Our power was off earlier for about 30 minutes. When it came back on our Directv wasn't working. So for awhile last night, we had no tv, no phone, and no internet. AAaahh. We had to talk to each other. Actually, Ron gave up and went to bed early. Guess we didn't have that much to talk about.

They started putting our fence up yesterday. They put the posts in and will come back later this week to finish it. After they were done Danielle walked outside, looked at it, and said, "It doesn't look like much of a fence, Mom."

Last night we took apart Hamster's & Girl's cages to give them a good cleaning. Their previous owners did not invest much time in keeping them clean. We got them nice and clean, put them all back together, and moved them downstairs to the playroom. Before I went to bed last night I had the sudden urge to go check on the hamsters. It was a good thing I did. Danielle's fluffy hamster was training for a marathon on its wheel, but Tyler's hamster was NOT in his cage. As I was standing there, staring at the cage, letting it register that a furry piece of dog food was loose in the house somewhere, I heard a noise at my feet. Tyler's hamster had crawled out of his cage, down out of the window sill to the floor, and was scurrying around in Danielle's baby doll cradle. Nearby was a partially nibbled goldfish cracker. I breathed a sigh of relief, scooped him up and placed him back in his cage. I added some tape to the places I thought Hamster might be using to escape. This morning we hurried downstairs before the dogs & kids were up to be sure everyone was still where they belonged. They were. No lives lost... yet. I thought Hamster's escapades were rather amusing and told Tyler about it this morning. Once I reassured him Hamster was not dead, Tyler thought it was pretty funny, too. These pictures are from their time together tonight.

In between stopping for groceries, taking Tyler to school, and working on the ABC song w/Danielle, I spent my day looking for the elusive T!ckle Me E!mo. Seems like I'm always a day late when it comes to top Ebay sellers. Yesterday those silly $40 toys were selling for $200!!! When I looked this morning, they were selling for $120. By the time I found some to sell, the market was saturated and they're only selling for about $65-$85 now. They are sold out EVERYWHERE. Well, everywhere except Ebay.

This weekend Tyler received his first non-family birthday party invitation. He was SO excited! It's for a little girl in his class, and it's at a gymnastics place nearby. The kids get to go and do some tumbling and running around. It sounds like a lot of fun (and not so much clean up for the mom!). Tyler can't remember anyone's name in his class (except his teacher's), so he wasn't sure who this little girl is. On the way to school I encouraged him to find out. When we got to Tyler's class today, a very cute little girl w/long blonde hair hopped across the room and stopped in front of Tyler. She threw her arms up in the air and said, "Tyler! Are you coming to my party!" When he said yes, she threw her arms around him and gave him a huge hug. Tyler hugged her back. It was so cute. (Ron asked me later if Tyler was embarrassed. She was very cute. I don't think he was embarrassed at all. I think he enjoyed it.) I told Tyler to find out what she'd like to have for her birthday. He asked her, and she put one hand on his shoulder and leaned up to whisper in his ear. (This kid is a flirt!!) I was standing several feet away but could hear her loudly whisper, "I want something princessy." It was so cute watching the two of them together. When I picked Tyler up this afternoon, he immediately informed me he and this little girl played together all day. They sat together, played on the merry-go-round together, played in class together. Tyler was obviously smitten with her. Although I quite clearly heard what she wanted, I asked Tyler. He told me she'd like to have something princessy (which sounded quite funny coming from his mouth). He thought for a minute and said, "I think we should get her some makeup. That's princessy isn't it?" He thought for another second and then added, "Well, you put it on and it makes you look like a princess." This whole interaction between them and the obvious contemplation that had occurred after their parting was sooo sweet. Danielle is already calling her Tyler's girlfriend. She's such a good little sister!

(This is Danielle playing w/her toy that sings the ABC song. She looked particularly girly today.)