You May Have Noticed From the Birthday Pictures...

For the last... forever... Mark has wanted a pet. The other boys too, but for sure, Mark. You'll remember the time he earned his pet fish with good behavior (they later died, but we actually now have 3 glow fish that appear to be indestructable. No, really, Ben put a bar of Irish Spring Soap in the tank - not to be discovered until the water was green and foamy- and they survived. Fish weren't enough, though, he wanted something he could play with. I resisted.

The kids started out asking for a puppy. Now, there is the small matter of the fact that Kevin is allergic to dogs, so that was an easy no. But if not for that, I could still think of about 17,000 reasons not to add a puppy to our household. Poop, pee, and puke among them. Every time my resolve started to fade, I'd hear of a dog that had to be chased all over the neighborhood, thought of having to potty train another creature (kids are hard enough!) or just reminded myself that I would be the one taking care of the cute wittle thing. At some point, that may be okay, but for now, I resisted.

The next request was a Guinea Pig. Eric's class had one for a class pet. We considered this one. But, in the end, I couldn't get past the idea of a rodent in my house. I had hamsters when I was newly married, and they pretty much creeped me out, as much as I wanted to like them. So, I resisted.

I can't really remember what got us started on the bird topic. Yet, Mark did a lot of research... no, really, he checked out a book from the library and became our resistant bird expert. The topic would come up, and we would say maybe later, and then it would be forgotten for awhile. Never for very long, though. Kevin and I talked about it and finally decided we'd get the boy(s) a bird. We decided on a parakeet and thought we'd go on the weekend and buy it and all the gear, only one day Kevin came home from work with news that a buddy at work had a cockatiel they were looking for a home for. This bird is about 15 years old and very friendly. They were only giving her away because their dog made it impossible to get her out of her cage to interact with. (Think really cute dog, going crazy over bird and trying to eat it. EEK) Anyway, we spent some time with the bird and decided to bring her home. We think she's a girl. Apparently with birds it's hard to tell without some sort of surgery (or if they, you know, lay eggs) but I'm going with the theory that the bird is female. Makes me feel slightly less outnumbered.

So, welcome to our family... Lucky...