All is not well in Ratville. On Monday we left the house about 4:30. The kids had been playing with Midnight up until right before we left. We returned home at 7:30 to find Midnight a little stiff. Ugh. One poor child was in tears, mourning the loss. The others were equally grieved. Despite my bit of disdain for the rats, I felt sympathy and rushed the kids to Petco for a replacement (now Midnight II). Yes, it ended up being a late night, but hopefully they will have sweet memories of being escorted to the pet store late at night because their mommy loved them so much. 
That’s not all. The next morning the kids decided that “Ginger” was not doing well. She was very sneezy, and as rats can be very prone to respiratory infections, we made yet another trip to the pet store. Because we are still within the 15 day guarantee they will take Ginger to the vet and administer antibiotics for her. Oh my. Wouldn’t it be easier to just get a new rat? Yes it would, but no, they have all fallen in love with Ginger. What another little life lesson in just their first five days as rat owners. We take care of the things we own. So now we wait 7-10 days for Ginger to be restored to health. The kids can call and check on her as they like.
On a totally different topic, here is a funny story. Elijah and Benjamin love to be tickled and often beg for it. I know, crazy kids. But I willingly oblige and tackle them with tickles frequently. When they’ve had enough, they simply have to say, “I love you!” and then I stop. Well sometimes I carry on a bit and say, “Well, I love you, too” or “I love you more”. Elijah started his own rendition of the book Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney, even though he’s never read the book. He’ll say something like, “Well, I love you around the world” and I’ll return something like, “I love you around the world ten times.” This morning he shouted through his laughter, “I love you like God does!” Awwwww. I said, “Well, you can’t beat that!” He gets it, he knows how much his Father loves him. This kid brings joy to me every day. Thank you Father for your gift of love and for allowing me to show that love to my son and for the gift of his love in return. Pretty cool!
way too much emotion for one post. i don’t know whether to laugh or cry:-)
what a wonderful life you have, though. betweet rats, kids and the love of God, what else do you need??
Awww. Sorry about your new pet. Hope all is well with the other two. We are animal lovers here, too. Our dogs are part of our family. You should have seen us when our two guieana (spelling??) pigs passed away. We even had funerals for them!
I think the neighbors wondered if they should call the police for one of the funerals because we were out digging Oreo’s grave in our garden and singing, crying, and saying prayers for her at about midnight! I think they wondered just what we were burying!
So sweet what Elijah is saying back to you. The love of God is everything!
Hugs,
Janet, Kevin, Ted, Philip, and Eli