Human Guinea Pig

We had Emery's party last night and I need to post pictures. It was 5 boys and 1 girl. The boys were CRAZY and LOUD and I don't always do well with CRAZY and LOUD. But as the party went on, and I worked to let go, we all had fun.

I realize, in these situations, that I seem a lot like my own mother. There was a distance she kept from kids that I think I employ at times. My mother loved her own children, but for the most part, she preferred the company of adults. I am just like my mother in this respect. I really enjoy Emery's friends one-on-one, but I struggle being around a big group of kids. I even struggle with my own kids when they go tribal.

And speaking of struggle... I got an email from the mother of the guinea pigs we are adopting. They are ready for us to take ownership. On Monday. This family is moving back to Thailand and they can't take their pets with them. Emery has wanted a guinea pig since they got one in his class (Hillary, the teacher, takes it home on weekends. The kids named it Oreo). When this family sent out a note saying they needed to give their guniea pigs away, I saw it as a perfect opportunity. This family can give us all kinds of instructions and on-going customer support (via email). These animals are already socialized, not traumatized from living at PetSmart or some such place. So, this seems a good option. The only thing is, the deal I originally made with Em was that we'd get a guinea pig once the construction was complete. So here we are in the middle of all of this, already squished into living in less than a house than the small house we had and I have to figure out where to put these possibly-smelly rodents.

And I struggle, because I am not the best Pet person. But I keep trying to follow the path that beckons me. And these guinea pigs beckoned. We will have to go with the experiment/experience and see where it leads us.